


The Price of Flesh

by annasofroma



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Horror, Dubious Morality, Human Trafficking, M/M, Nen (Hunter X Hunter), Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2019-11-06 12:20:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17939597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annasofroma/pseuds/annasofroma
Summary: There are a group of Lost Hunters that seek down and rescue those taken alive by the Flesh-market to use as fresh goods. Kurapika ends up being forced to work with them to navigate the part of the black-market known as the Fresh Flesh Markets after Leorio disappears.His ultimate goal of seeking the eyes of his clan is put to a terrible contrast as he works his way through the part of the Flesh collector’s business that deals with those not yet dead.





	1. Prologue

 “—and that’s still the most exciting thing to happen to me in weeks. Took days to get the smell out of my scrubs, so glad I don’t need to wear a suit when I’m working in the wards. How do small children contain so much sick—” Leorio’s voice cut off into a coughing fit. It sounded wet, like he was bringing up a lot of flehm. “Damn it, what a time to get sick. Anyway, remember, like always, if you need me you know where I am. Not that you ever call back you bastard—”

_Beep. ‘End voicemail. Message received at twenty minutes past the twenty-first hour, one day ago. To save message please press—'_

A smile twitched at Kurapika mouth for the first time in three days as he clicked through to save the voicemail with the dozens already present. “Then why do you keep calling me. Idiot.”

‘ _You have another missed call, number designated_ Leorio, _at ten past the sixth hour, today. There is no voicemail.’_

Kurapika frowned. The phone blinked at him, unconcerned. Leorio didn’t send messages that close together. There shouldn’t be another missed call for another two days. Well, perhaps it was an accident. Leorio was busy and a call that early meant he was probably tired when he sent it. It was a minor puzzle, but one that would be explained or made moot with the next voicemail no doubt.

His computer hummed gently as Kurapika went back to work, concentrating on keeping his breathing slow and steady to ease the now constant ache in his chest. With the clash with the Phantom Thieves now a month ago he’d settled into the new search with as much fervour as it took to bury the previous disappointment.

The lack of progress hadn’t yet gotten to him, but the sleepless nights, ignored meals and continued pressure was beginning to take a toll. Not that much damage, but the looks Melody had given him the day before suggested she was beginning to spend more focus worrying about his health than her own concerns. Only more reasons to keep Leorio at arm’s length. He’d have worried even more than Melody, and at this point Kurapika knew he couldn’t afford to slow down.

Gon and Killau where busy in the intense, uncomplicated, and delighted way that only children could manage. Greed Island was a paradise adventure and Kurapika hoped that they would find what they were searching for. Gon often seemed to look right through his head, but even so he would usually move on with just as much ease. There was a limit to how he saw the world. As uncomplicated as his preteen world view was it meant left him able to overlook anything that he saw as being less important. Meeting him during the hunter exam had pulled out the first inkling of that easy joy that had become so alien. It was dangerous to be around him too long, even as it was addictive.

But Gon was gone now, and Kurapika was sure that it was good. It was much easy to be selfish and ignore the emotional impact their mere existence caused when they weren’t there to remind him of it.

He doubted that Leorio would have given the same uncomplicated support if he’d stuck around, or the unintentional emotional manipulation. He cared just as much as Gon but with an awareness of where of the end of the path Kurapika had chosen would lead. Gon either didn’t or couldn’t see the road the same way. York New had hammered that home. Kurapika didn’t know how to treat this new concern from Leorio because he didn’t know how far it would go. When he’d passed out in York New Leorio had spent the whole forty-eight hours waiting for him to wake up. He hadn’t hovered afterwards, and Kurapika wouldn’t have ever known if Melody hadn’t mentioned it later. She’d said it with that subtle watchfulness that made Kurapika weary of the follow up question. But that time there hadn’t been any follow ups.

He still didn’t know what to make of it; either Melody’s interest or Leorio’s concern. He wondered if Leorio would go so far as to try and stop him if he thought the price too high. Melody seemed to understand that pressing him would only have the opposite reaction.

On the whole it was safer to ignore Leorio and let him draw his own conclusions. It wasn’t like Kurapika had anything to say that would ease any building worry.

Dragging his attention back to the brilliant screen he’d been staring at for far too many hours now, Kurapika listened to the thumping of his blood through his head. Stretching his back until it cracked, he pushed himself to his feet. Crossing to the window he opened the blind a crack. Enough to let a sliver of light in, but not enough to obscure the computer monitor.

Sun must have risen at some point. Kurapika rubbed his eyes and checked the clock on the desk. Eight o’clock. The unslept in cot in the corner of the room both beckoned and repelled him. The dark circles under his eyes were no doubt now a permanent part of his face as much as the dull pain of exhaustion in his bones.

A fly buzzed, sick and dying at the edge of the window sill. Kurapika watched it head butting the glass over and over again, the hum of it’s wings breaking into silence for longer and longer with each defeat.

A careful knock on the door made him aware of how much he’d drifted mentally. He hummed in acknowledgement as Melody let herself in and stepped back from the window. She left her hat off when they were alone in the apartment office they were renting. Kurapika hadn’t even realised how permanent part of her it was until he started seeing her without it. The implied trust of this action left him in conflict internally, but he wasn’t sure if it was a negative or positive sort of conflict.

Melody gave a warm smile, and he returned it in a technical fashion. He wasn’t very good at smiling these days, but she never seemed to mind.

“Good morning Kurapika. There’s a message for us from an undisclosed group that I found on sent to the public server inbox. It states that they have a small amount of useful information they’ll exchange for a brief in-person meeting with you. Only in person. They mention the Scarlet Eyes by name.”

Kurapika could feel her focus on him as his heart rate jumped. His first lead in a month. The first thing going right since the York New encounter.

Darting for his chair and twisting it around he pulled up the window and checked the message. “A trade of information for a meeting? It’s signed with a name I don’t know…” he murmured more to himself the Melody. “Who is this man and why is he contacting me? Could be a trap, could be a ploy to get into my good graces as a rising power in the black market. Either way I don’t know if I can ignore this, regardless of what it is. How does even know to bait me with the eyes? Thoughts?”

“I don’t know.” Melody rested her hands together as she looked thoughtful. “It is very well timed, but I did what checks I could, and it seems to have been sent from a fairly moderately established hunter and one that has a reputation as Lost Hunter. His name is Jarlath Heath and he openly signed the message. He has an…odd reputation. He’s best known for passing out and throwing up on the chairman during his hunter exam.” She gave a lopsided smile. “There’s are a few other rumours that he only passed because his teammate supported him, but that’s more office gossip. He is a hunter after all. Most of us have odd reputations. I doubt the chairman would have let him pass if he didn’t have some skill.”

Kurapika glared at the now opened document. No time or place were stated, and the specifics were vague except for the mention of the Scarlet Eyes. Something about a broad location and hinted identities.

Hitting reply Kurapika rapidly set out the location of his and Melodies current office apartment temporary accommodation and a request for as soon a meeting as possible. “Can you be present for this meeting?” he didn’t say that he could use someone to make sure this man was telling the truth. At this point he didn’t have to.

“I will be there.”

Backing each other up when dealing with a confrontation was becoming a habit. A dangerous addictive habit, but Kurapika kept telling himself that it was the unavoidable sort of habit. Stay distant as much as possible, but when forced keep attachments loose. Close attachments only hindered his mission, emotionally compromised him, and made him care about people he’d inevitably be forced to put in danger. And one who’d perhaps distract him from his mission.

He stole a glance at his phone, realised what he was horribly close to thinking about, and derailed his train of thought.

“Would you like some of the coffee I made?” Melody asked, and Kurapika blinked to find her standing in the doorway looking back. He couldn’t remember her moving. He blinked again. Maybe he should get some sleep. Later. After this meeting. He’d sleep if he made progress. He’d deserve sleep if he achieved something.

“Yes please.”

“I’ll bring you a cup in a minute then.” The door closed behind her.

Kurapika leaned forward over the desk and forced his eyes to focus on the monitor again. A new message glowed as it arrived.

Just one line. _‘I’ll be there in two hours –_ _Heath’_

****

Kurapika heard Melody opening the outer doors before he heard the voice. He paused and listened closer. No, it was _voices_. There were two new people entering the office.

Quietly summoning his chains and letting his sleeve fall forward enough to cover then, Kurapika leaned forward in his chair. Expecting to use a weapon and being ready to use it were two very different things. But paranoia saved lives.

The man that opened his door was still facing the wrong way and talking fast, “—and after all the rain we've had recently I feel that it really isn’t too much to ask for a day of sun. You feel me? I know plants and shit need rain, but I don’t like turning up to every appointment looking like a drowned spaniel. I already fail to attract guys. This does not improve my chances.”

Kurapika felt something like irritation even as he carefully let none of it show on his face as he waited to be acknowledged. This degree of professionalism did not bode well of the chances of gaining anything useful from this waste of time. He ignored his internal voice that pointed out he hadn’t been achieving anything regardless.

Heath, or who he assumed to be Heath froze and spun to face him, alarm evident on his face. “Oh! I’m so sorry! I thought this was a hall. I didn’t know your rooms were this small.”

He was tall enough to look down on Leorio, Kurapika thought, but it did little to suit him. Or the smiley emoticon on shirt. His face could be called puppy-doggish, so long as the puppy in question was a bulldog.

Annoyance mounting as the man continued to just stare gormlessly at him, Kurapika gave a tight nod and waved at a chair. “You’re Heath, I assume. And you are…?” he asked of the figure just visible behind him.

Heath stumbled forward, hunching his shoulders, as a tiny woman followed him in.

Melody was a step behind her and shut the door to stood quietly against the wall, eyes contemplative underneath her hat as she listened to them.

The woman was dressed in a dark red pants suits the colour of dried blood, and with the faint outline of guns hidden in the folds of her jacket. Her hair possessing the stink and stiffness of enough hair spray to kill a wasp nest. “Aki Akasuki, at your service. We’re here as agents for our employers, and at your kind discretion.”

Kurapika filed away the comment about employers and nodded in return. “I’m told you’re here with information about the Scarlet Eyes.”

Heath recovered from his temperory case of nerves and straightened up with a blinding grin. “Yes, so long as we can come to something of an arrangement.”

“The trade you mentioned.” Kurapika twitched away from the painfully fake smile. “Your message was rather unhelpful, I found. Downright useless even. Do you have anything for me, or are you just here to bluff me into a bad deal?”

Aki took the hit without blinking even as Heath cowered again, “We have good information. The only trade we want is some answers to a few easy questions. Our employers are odd people and have a few easily met conditions to their help.”

Melody pursing her lips, a crease forming between her eyebrows, but gave a slight nod. Catching the movement Kurapika turned his attention fully onto the two visitors. So they were telling a sort of truth. Not outright, but enough to confuse. Interesting. That was a lot better then he’d expected.

Rubbing his thumb over the edge of the chain out of their line of sight, he could have sworn that Heath glanced down to the point of the desk that hide his hand. Some sort of Nen, or just random chance? He knew that there was no way the visitor could sense the chains with Nen, but that didn’t rule out other methods of detection, Kurapika mused as he glanced between the two visitors. “Well? What hoops do your masters want me to jump through?”

Heath spoke up, his voice even and clear as ever despite his poor posture. “Just a few nice easy questions and answers; nothing deep or secret. You wish to possess the Scarlet Eyes of the Kurta clan, yes?”

Kurapika let his glare speak for himself. These two didn’t need to know anything unless they offered something more solid than the mere insinuations they’d given so far. They’d already covered this part in the emails, no need to repeat this until given reason to.

Heath frowned but didn’t press the question. “All right then. Is it just a few eyes you want, or all of them? I mean you looking a full set here here or you just want a few pretty objects and decided on these at random?”

The silence in the room stretched taunt like a noose around the neck of a soon to be hanged man.

What was the point of this? Kurapika clenched his jaw and watched Heath breaking out in a sweat. This was a joke. Aki merely watching him blankly, with the expression of a hired guard doing an unpleasant job.

Hands shaking noticeably, Heath tried to rally. “Well, then I guess I’ll move on again.” He managed a smile that almost looked genuine. “Last question what do you want with the eyes? For instance, do you want to crush these eyes and use the properties of them for their power, is your interest in more artistic in nature, or are you just an obsessive collector of body parts?”

Kurapika felt his vision go red behind his contacts, as he captured and caged his rage behind his icily calm face. Bloodlust was no doubt leaking from every pore of his body. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” He said, dripping as much of his sheathed raged into his words as he dared.

Heath straightened out, the degree of his full body shaking becoming obvious as it suddenly stilled to nothing. He stared at Kurapika for a full five seconds and then quietly folded up and dropped to the floor in a dead faint, caught at the last minute by Aki.

“That didn’t take long.” She said, apparently unconcerned, as she dropped her associate to the ground and crouched beside him, keeping Kurapika visible in the corner of her eye. “I keep telling him to find a better opening question, but no. I’d say forgive him his stupidity but he’s not really worth that.”

“…What just happened?” Kurapika asked and wondered if he should have bowed to his baser impulses and slept regardless of his work.

“Your rage knocked him out.” Aki raised an eyebrow. “I’m a hunter. I know when someone is projecting enough bloodlust to drop an elephant. Jarlath is…rather sensitive to that kind of thing. It happens a lot. The bosses really need a new frontman in my view, but unfortunately he’s still the best we got.”

Kurapika tilted his head to the side and met Melody’s eye and got a slight but reluctant nod. The truth again, with some missing information.

Heath made a quiet noise, opened his eyes, and sat up in a single jerky movement. “Fuck. Get me a bucket.”

Ignoring Kurapika’s now increasing confusion and disgust, Aki casually grappled his wastepaper basket from beside his desk and handed it to the dry heaving man.

A few noisy moments later the wastebasket was returned to its place. “He’s good,” said Heath wiping his mouth clean and aiming a final spit of bile into the basket. “We can deal with him.”

“Sure? He still looks like he wants our hearts on a platter to admire.” Aki replied.

Kurapika felt another surge of anger at their disregard for his presence and noticed its correlation with Heath’s cowering again.

“N-no, he’s angry, but it’s for the eyes. He wants…I don’t know. To rescue? Protect? It’s a familiar feeling. Something he knows personally. He’s not a collector, this is personal for him. The eyes belonged to people he knew.” Heath managed to meet his eyes. “We can trust him with the truth here.”

It cooled to ice the moment as his mind caught up with the implications of Heath and Aki’s discussion as Heath picked apart his inner motivation.

He was used to dealing with Melody, and it helped that she had fairly limited insight into his deepest thoughts. Even he could pick up on more than any average person should be able to. But none of that made him better disposed towards Heath. This was not something he wanted leaving his office. There should not be someone able to read him this easily after a few thoughtless questions. Clenching his hand into a fist he felt the chain bite into his fingers. “You’re some sort of mind reader.”

“Empath, not mind reader. I’m not explaining how this works to you, just that it does.” Heath gave a sick smile. “You got some rage issues pal.”

A quiet cough dragged his attention where it should have gone thirty seconds before to see Melody’s reaction. She was looking at Heath with curiosity “Empath? Do you mind me asking if you’re a Genius Nen user? Unless you chose this price, but I have to admit that seems unlikely. Fainting seems to be an inconvenience better done without.”

“Ha! Got that right.” Heath’s face went to war with itself for a moment before he shrugged. “Eh, whatever. You seem okay. Much nicer then him. Yeah, I got this at seven. That should tell you more then enough about how much choice I had.”

“I see. Thank you for answering the question.” Melody said, with a small smile.

Kurapika half turned his head back so he could keep everyone in his line of sight and continued, “And why do you and your employers want to know why I’m interested in the Scarlet Eyes? Is this blackmail? Or just a friendly call?”

Wincing, Heath glanced back at Kurapika warily. “We’re Lost Hunters. Well, I am. Aki’s more a Blacklist Hunter moonlighting as a Lost Hunter.” Heath leaned back on his palms, face pinched. “We hunt down people that disappear or that are taken. And we take down the people that farm bodies to make flesh artefacts and kill them.” He winced. “Ouch. I know you’re angry, but could you turn it down? Otherwise I’m going into the other room and letting Akasuki explain this shit. I don’t want to faint for the fourth time today.”

Kurapika tried to figure out if he could even be bothered explaining his anger and decided he didn’t care what the man did. Turning to Aki he asked, “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“Outreach.” She stood and shoved her hands into her pockets in an easy gesture. “Ours is a dangerous and isolating job. But you are very far from being the only people hurt by flesh hunters who set out to get their loved ones back. Whatever is left of them. We only focus on the living but the enemy of my enemy is a friend after all. And friends of convenience are better than none at all.” She gave a languid shrug. “We find hints of what you want and you do the same. Despite what we implied this one is technically a freebie. Got a lot of dirt and it’s no use to us. All the victim are long dead. But it still means a lot to you and in return if you happen to wander by something that could lead to a few little missed yet grizzly deaths, well…We would be very grateful. And we would remember for the future. There are a lot of Scarlet Eyes from that clan. You may be searching for a long time.”

Kurapika rested his hand over his eyes and tried to think as quickly as his addled thoughts allowed. It was an easy deal but would involve the betrayal of those he sometimes was forced to work with. The same emotion that would compel a man to smile as a grizzly execution tugged at his mind.

He’d betray that sort of person without a second thought.

Something still nagged at him. “Why did you decide to approach me? What tipped you off that I might of open to this sort of arrangement?” and what might send others without charitable intentions after him.

Aki smiled. “You don’t kill, as a general rule. Blackmail, threats, underhanded deals, yes, but not that many deaths on your record. Also? The only consistent part of your collection record is the eyes. You don’t have worry about other’s finding that. They’d have to have a lot of resourses to manage that and almost no one else cares _what_ people like you are collecting. But as for the tipping point?” her smile widened into a grin. “Really it was just that we took a fifty-fifty guess on you.”

“You conduct this type of interview based on guesswork.” Kurapika said flatly.

“Yup.” Aki grin was downright wolfish. “Go on, asked us what we’d have done if you’d turned out to be the wrong sort.”

It was Kurapkia’s turn to stare flatly in return.

“Ah, spoilsport. I’ll keep that little mystery.”

Melody spoke up from the side of the room and from Aki’s start she’d clearly forgotten about her. “I’d like to know if that’s alright with you.”

Heath snorted and staggered to his feet. “Aw, now you have to tell her that the backup plan is that we run away.” He said and Melody gave a quiet laugh.

Folding her arms Aki pouted. “Damn it, I need to project more dread on that line.”

“I don’t think it would help.” Heath flapped a hand at her. “You’re too small and cute and I’m, well, I’m _me_. We inspire no dread.”

“We wouldn’t have this problem if the bosses turned up more often on these side quests, they keep giving us.”

“Ha, good luck with that.”

“Hn.” Kurapika folded a hand over the chain on the other and waited until their attention was back on him. “I’ll think about your offer. If I see something useful, I’ll pass it on. But no promises on this score. Understood? I’m not going out of my way for this. It’s like you said, this would be a relationship of convenience only.”

Aki gave a smile to suggest that she didn’t care one way or the other. “Understood.” Sliding forward she dropped a USB drive on the desk. “Here’s your intel. Use it as you will. If you ever come across something you think will help us our contact detail are also on there. We look forward to hearing from you.”

“Yeah, thanks. Uh. Sorry about your bin.” Heath gave a weak smile.

A moment later and they’d both disappeared out the door, Melody stood in the doorway for a moment, watching as they exited out of the main office. “I didn’t think that they’d be a group like theirs. They were telling the truth, but you already knew that. Something about the way they feel about their bosses…I can’t pin it down. Their hearts became unsettled at their mere mention. There’s something odd there. Not upset, at least the Lady’s wasn’t, just odd and strong. These employers hold a great sway over them.”

“Noted. I doubt we’ll ever need them though. My duty is to the dead, not the living.” Something about how that had been stated so bluntly was getting to him in the niggling way a mosquito bite does.

Melody glanced down at the data stick. “I’d suggest that you get some rest before sorting through the contents of that stick, but I get the feeling you won’t listen to me.”

“Not when it’s this close.” Kurapika tried to give her a reassuring look. “I’ll rest when I’ve checked that it’s the real thing. Then I’ll sleep.”

“Yes, but then there will be something else more important. You’re going to burn yourself to an early grave.”

He ignored that comment and plugged the stick into the computer and began the download.

Sighing quietly, Melody’s conveyed all the tangled understanding and worry that she felt and that he refused to understand or acknowledge.

Understanding and partners were a liability, but he didn’t want to do without her even as he suspected he cared slightly more than he wanted too.

Friend was such a dangerous word.

The door shut behind her a moment later and Kurapika crushed the pang of loneliness he felt with the loss of her presence. The air felt too still and stilted, the computer’s rumble was now too loud, and the dull ache in his head was back in force.

Banishing the unhelpful thoughts and the impulse to glance at his phone, Kurapika forced himself to go back to work.

Friends were a liability, but he functioned so much worse on his own.

The distraction set in again and less than five minutes later as the download took it’s time ticking over and unzipping the files. Kurapika found himself holding his phone and staring at the missed call.

A brief vision of the phone ringing, ringing and ring until the click of the receiver being picked up and he could hear Leorio’s voice—

Then he’d have to explain the call. And his worry. And fall into the hole of explaining why he never picked up. And why he sounded so tired and why—

He went down the whole list of reasons he shouldn’t ring back. Leorio should be busy with studies. It had been a mistake. It had been boredom. It was nothing. It meant nothing.

But it had also been out of character, and just strange enough to leave him feel it burning a hole through his mind.

Ten minutes later he hit the dial button and waited as the phone rang itself out and feeling increasingly dumb and worried as the dull purr of the phone carried on.

 _Click. ‘Goooood afternoon! Or if it isn’t afternoon then screw you. You’ve reached Leorio Paradinight’s voicemail so if you’d be so kind as too_ —'

Kurapika hung up and stared a bit more at the phone.

Leorio must just not cared or have considered what that missed call would look like without a voicemail. It might be a ploy to force him to call back. A joke. For a moment Kurapika paused and tried think of a time Leorio had done that.

He rang again, and again the phone rang out.

It had been a mistake. Leorio would ring back soon and leave a long a meandering voice mail and all would be fine.

Kurapika dropped the phone. It clattered as it hit the floor, sounding so very much loud then the drumming of the imagined ringtone in his head. He twitched around to the monitor and got back to work.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Kurapika rubbed at his eyes as he exited another site that was merely some damaged person’s idea of a joke. He still didn’t understand why someone would design a fake storefront for a Flesh Collector, but there were a lot of them to work through if you had no hard addresses to work off on the dark web. But it wasn’t like he had a better lead, at least not until his new contact got back to him.

That left him to scroll through page after page of pointless, insulting, drivel that didn’t even have the decency to be genuine.

Left alone with a thousand implied deaths, and his darkening thoughts, the phone sitting on his desk burned a hole in Kurapika’s awareness. He staunchly ignored it.

The data he’d gained from the Lost Hunters had proved to be a gold mine, and for the last three weeks, he’d almost drowned trying to use it to the best of his abilities. The small down times he’d had allowed him enough space to question how the Lost Hunters had had so much specific contact information for a dozen or more high-profile Flesh Collectors. These men and woman were high profile. More than that, they were public citizens in the press, politics and the police force.

Kurapika found it hard to believe that all of this was just an ‘outreach effort’ from the Lost Hunters. There was too much information on that data stick for it to be that simple. The one person that was rumoured to have a set of Scarlet Eyes was highlighted in the data stick, but not separated from the rest. All of this was apparently directed at him, but in a way that emphasised how unimportant he was.

He was just another potential helper, and not even one important enough to separate from the rest.

An interesting tactic, but he had to admit it was effective. He had agreed to the terms, after all. Even if it had been a vague agreement, he hated to leave a debt unrepaid and the suggestion of further backup and assistance was tempting.

The one highlighted name, a collector who worked in the police force, that was open to selling his four pairs of Scarlet Eyes. No price listed. Just a note in a datafile of a name, an online address on an unlisted site, a login, and request for credentials.

Clearing his credentials had taken the better part of the last month. The man’s rank wasn’t stated, like his vocation was, but he took great pains to keep his activities theoretically legal. Kurapika was sure that it was only his status as a Hunter that had even gotten him past the first email. The seller had already hinted heavily that this was a much-wanted item, putting Kurapika on edge even as he wiled his way into better standing to be allowed into the bidding.

But he now had contact, the beginnings of a deal, and all that was left was to agree upon a price. Kurapika had sent what he believed to be a few rough estimates through, that while low, would pique enough interest as to secure further negotiations.

That was now two days ago.

Two days of nothing but a pending response had left him with far too much time to think.

To wonder if he’s set the opening price too low. If someone else had beaten him to the deal. To wonder if the collector had lost interest.

Time to wonder why he’d still yet to get a response.

Since he’d sent the last message through to the flesh collector, Kurapika hadn’t slept. The itch behind his eyes had started sometime during the night, and the pressure in his skull had become almost unbearable. But someone needed to watch the message box and he didn’t want to ask Melody. She had her own problems and work and didn’t need an extra burden. Kurapika had repeated this exact thought so many times over the last eighteen hours he’d lost count. He’d forgotten his original logic, but it must have been sound, or he would have already asked for help.

He also had time to stare at his phone. Three weeks had passed since the last missed call from Leorio.

The phone hadn’t rung again. After two weeks of silence Kurapika had taken a little time out to relistened to the final voicemail looking for some hidden agender or missed message. Nothing. Leorio’s coughed seemed to be causing him trouble, as did the patients he was overseeing, but there was nothing else to notice. Just regular work and gossip about people Kurapika didn’t know and didn’t care about.

With all the empty space of time the last two days he’d now sorted back through weeks of saved voicemails only to find even less.

Leorio liked the kids he saw, even as he complained bitterly about them. He had a few friends that he saw occasionally, but no one name came up often enough to be notable. He hated his biology lecturer and saw him as a hindrance in the way of his study. There was some student charity group he was helping, out of boredom. There were mentions of cold takeaway food eaten. A great deal of coughing that increased as the messages became more recent. Mention of his neighbours. His landlord.

And absolutely nothing which explained why he’d yet to ring back even as Kurapia rang him again, and again, and again.

In a fit of desperation, he’d even handed in over to Melody to see if she could hear anything he couldn’t. She’d found nothing but had said that Leorio’s cough sounded bad and that maybe it had gotten worse and he was recovering in hospital and wasn’t able to ring back. As even she had looked unconvinced by this argument Kurapika discounted it out of hand. He’d almost considered trying to call up Leorio’s university to see if he could find out something from them. But that had seemed too much.

He wasn’t that worried. Just…mildly concerned.

But that had been before he’d had two days to stew in his own thoughts.

The blurred monitor moved slowly down as he forced himself to keep scrolling. Flesh collectors were a private and intimate bunch that only made deals in person, through carefully screened online deals, and at highly guarded auctions. But there were always careless amateurs or very powerful agents that simply didn’t care. Even with all the hoax sites there was still plenty of legitimate ones to search. The chance of finding even a hint to the location of the Scarlet Eyes on one of these dark web servers was so low as to be non-existent, but still he looked, even if only to avoid being alone with his thoughts.

The first few times he’d used those sites the quantity of flesh, bones, blood, skin and teeth on display was horrifying enough to leave him sick to his stomach. Now he didn’t even blink as he scrolled through page after page of humans made into things. The part of his mind that remembered being normal still felt that sense of disgust and repletion, but on the normal cognitive level it didn’t register. Not like this. Not with this much, this amount of gore cleanly packaged and marketed like pieces of art.

Like pieces of choice meat.

It never got better, but it did get progressively unreal and that he could live with. That had been the most important skill he’d learned in the last few months. How to make reality as unreal as possible. How to distance himself so far from his own awareness to make this feel at least like a manageable task, and not something to be disgusted over.

He’d weighed this tasked against his duty to his clan and decided that killing his humanity as much as possible was the best way to manage this. Paying the price was worth it.

Kurapika found that he could recognise the methods and practice used by most of the common vendors. They were often fresh victims that focused on particularly nasty diseases. Ones that turned the victim inside out, mutated them, changed the form, or sometimes just caused a horrific amount of pain in a visually interesting way.

There were a lot of that sort of disease.

The terms were becoming familiar as the empty drilling in his gut. Even a few of the titles attached to the venders were becoming familiar. Death’s Mistress. The Devil’s Surgeon. The Bastards of the North End. Samual Smith. Prometheus’s Eagle.

Most of them had airs of pretention that annoyed him more than anything else. He’d occasionally wondered what kind of person, when harvesting humans for their body, sat down and decided to call themselves after a mythological reference. He wasn’t sure if they irritated him more or less than the ones who just decided to pick the most common name in the phonebook.

But the one part of this whole business he’d never get use to, never wanted to get use to, was how often these were attached to the faces of still living people. Showing the victim beforehand was meant to drum up interest before their inevitable death and give the opportunity to the buyer request particular methods of preservation of the corpse for an extra price.

Taxidermy, bottled in formalin, dried, skinned, or fresh for the buyer willing to pay enough to transport the frozen body.

Kurapika threw up the first time he’d seen living people’s faces attached to the descriptive sale text. Images of what his family and clan had to suffer through that still haunted his dreams and his drifting thoughts. Seeing those who hadn’t died on contact had not improved this.

Months later, he avoided looking at the photos, as he kept clicking forward. Nothing could ever desensitise him to seeing the expressions those faces held.

He still saw his family in those faces.

He flicked tabs to again, checking his message box.

One new message.

His hands shook as he wrangled it open and scanned down the new document.

_Willing to sell…Conditions to be met…Trade for an item of equal or greater value…list of acceptance items include—_

Kurapika stilled and rubbed the palms of his hands into his eyes.

“Damn it!”

Trades were common practice in interpersonal connections in the flesh market. The theory was that if someone was well known enough to be able to get in contact then it was better to do a direct trade for a preferred item then for cash.

More direct. More effective.

Kurapika wanted to laugh. Or perhaps it was cry. His emotions were tangled together, and the lack of sleep was not helping. Retaining intellectual awareness was so much easier than keeping his emotions balanced.

This was going to be so much harder than just cash. The first thing to do was decide which item would be the easiest to get, find a suitable piece, set up a completely separate trade for it, and from there work around to receiving an invitation to trade.

A conservative guess clocked up the time needed to months. He might not be able to find an item in time to make this deal. He’d have to keep working around the clock and set up at least one other deal and sort out the transport, the money, the exact trade and…and so much. So much to be done and never enough time.

But this man had four sets of Scarlet Eyes. So of course, he would do it.

Vision swimming Kurapika stood, and then almost fell.

First, however, he’d bow to his body’s will and sleep. At least for a little. He had an answer, for now, he had a goal, for now, and so, for now, he had kept to his vow.

He was allowed a little sleep. Then he’d work until he dropped again.

Crossing to the cot in the corner he fell forward without bothering to undress, or even pull the covers back. Face buried in his pillow he let himself close his eyes and drifted in the blood and accusing eyes the always followed him into the dark.

Familiar as the back of his eyelids, and twisted as his psyche, it was as close as to coming home as he ever got.

****

Three hours of sleep and twenty hours of work later and he’d moved up from the baseline sites to the more particular ones. Everything this client wanted was a borderline specialised item. Not truly unique collectors’ items, but certainly ones from bodies barely cooled by death, Kurapika thought, bitterness flooding his mouth.

He clearly believed that he had Kurapika in his power, and that left him able to demand whatever he wanted. Either or Kurapika had enough of reputation that he thought items like this were easily within his power.

There were three items on the ‘highly wanted list’. Bones eaten hollow by Black Fungal Miaser. The dried skin of someone dead from The Third World Thorn. Eyes from an adult killed by a basilisk.

Kurapika had taken note of how the first two of the items could be easily, or only, be found in the live flesh trade. In his desk was a neatly written and carefully coded book detailing everything he thought that would help Heath and Aki. Kurapika wasn’t even surprised that his primary motive for helping them ended up being pure spite but figured that they wouldn’t care. They probably already knew and worked from these sites, but it was always worth keeping track of those who deserved to die.

He kept notes on the man who was commissioning him, even if he suspected that they wouldn’t care.

The worst part of all of this was how he now had to go back to looking through the dying and recently dead looking for an old case of the Third World Thorn that the collector wanted, as it would be the simplest to find. It was a common disease in many counties after all. Kurapika was determined to locate as old a speciesism as he could find. He didn’t want the fresh blood on his mind. But the sites never seemed to value life or death, merely the state of the product.

He needed to retrieve and give his family the rest they deserved. They needed to be avenged and taken out of the hands of those fucking bastards that used them as decoration and collators items. He’d traded other items before, but this was the closest he’d gotten to seeing the transition between the living flesh and the dead objects he picked up and passed on.

Guilt was as familiar as his reflection, but this was a new flavour.

Dark spiked hair flicked past his vision in one of the photos, and for a sickening moment, he imaged Gon. Latent fear pumped at his heart even as he tried to grapple his mind away.

He flicked the pages over before he could think any more about the similarities. He didn’t need to have new faces appearing in his nightmares. He comforted himself that the figure had been far too tall, and adult looking, in the glance he’s gotten of an upraised middle finger framed by a mess of iridescent, blood-stained, skin.

He didn’t think that Gon would do that, even if he’d been kidnapped and infected. He’d look angry, but not with that expression of spite and bloodied nose that had nothing to do with the disease.

No that—

The horrible dawning fear sent him back five years in the blink of an eye, and he desperately tabbed back desire to be proven wrong closing intangible fingers around his throat choking him.

Leorio’s bloody face glowered at him.

Blood seeped from every visible part of his body, the long lesions twisting across his skin like the tiny thin vines of a plant in the way of someone in the late stages of Third World Thorn.

No. This wasn’t possible—

No. It was all too possible. Just extremely unlucky. So very unlucky.

Fucking hell.

No.

Kurapika grappled with his phone, blinding calling Leorio’s number. He needed to think rationally about this, but he couldn’t seem to get his brain to cooperate with him long enough to manage it.

He barely heard the door click open, and only realised what the sound had been when he noticed Melody resting a hand on his arm. He flinched away, still half focused on the phone and it was only when he heard a sharp intake of breath that he remembered the web page still open.

“Oh. Oh no.”

_Click. ‘Goooood afternoon! Or if it isn’t afternoon then—"_

Kurapika hung up and went to ring again when Melody blocked his hand.

“I have to I…I…He’s not dead yet; they still—I have time!” Kurapika’s thoughts scattered he tried to collect them. He turned eyes that he knew were now vivid scarlet. “I can still save him?” it wasn’t a question; it was a plea.

“Yes.” Melody wasn’t looking at him but was instead staring at the page. “They don’t expect him to die for two weeks. We have time. They’re letting him die of natural causes. There’s still time.”

For the first time, Kurapida remembered how much could be read on these pages and snapped back. “Two weeks. Yes. I…I can do that. But…where do I even start…His school. Work. Someone there will know something. I…” he clenched his hand and realised in a detached manner that he’d summoned his chains at some point. “I can save him.”

He almost felt thankful he’d been forced to search through those files if let him find this before it was too late.

The realisation that he’d have to abandon the eyes he was hunting hit him like a brick to the face.

Conducting both these searches would be impossible. He’d have to neglect everything. What if someone else fulfilled the contract before him? That had always been a possibility, but now his chances dropped from reasonable to non-existent. The part of his soul that he used when needed and spent the rest of his time ignoring murmured that Leorio still had two whole weeks. He could set up the deal for his clan’s eyes and then help his friend. Or he could do both. Leorio’s search would take time. He’d have gaps he could keep working to collect a specimen of this disease to fulfil his contract.

The Scarlet Eyes were his life, his existence. His everything. He could lose these four pairs forever if this failed.

“Kurapika?” Melody's mouth looked pinched. Kurapika didn’t want to know what she’d just heard from his heart. “We’d better hurry. Those dates are based around the disease, not the brutality the victim is suffering or if they’re somehow hastening it medically.”

“…I know. We should start by tracking Leorio as far as possible and then… Can you help me?” There was desperation he couldn’t explain in that question, but with his eyes fixed on the blood on the screen, he was having trouble separating past and present. No one had even been able to help him before, and he couldn’t shake that reality for this long moment.

“You know I’ll help.” Her tone wasn’t harsh, but it did sound pained. “I will ring the police, ask for the missing person report, and what they know of this case and the people we can contact for more. I’m a hunter; they have to tell me. You contact his university and teachers. Talk to them. Find out where he went, who he talked to, and the rest. We can do this.”

“That won’t be enough.” Kurapika could almost feel the photo staring him down as he clutched it in his hand. “How do we find more. That won’t tell us enough. How can I…” Kurapika paused for another moment, the two parts of his conviction, of his duty, of his affection, and his past and present at war. He swallowed hard. “…Could you contact Heath and Aki? I have some ideas of where to look, but they could be vital. They told us they’re professionals. I…they might be able to find Leorio faster than us. We’ll find some way to pay them back.”

They might be able to find Leorio fast enough so he wouldn’t have to choose.

“Yes. That could work. We’ll do this, but we have to move fast, and we can’t afford to be distracted,” Melody kept her face turned towards the monitor, studying it, before she left, moving fast enough to raise her hair into a fluttering cloak behind her.

Kurapika sunk deeper into his chair, and as his eyes again caught sight of the blood, he tabbed away.

Past, present, future.

Duty to his family, the need of a friend, and the knowledge that whatever he picked the other would always haunt him. But there might be no one else able or knowledgeable enough to help Leorio. Even if the Lost Hunters agreed to help, it might not be enough. He’d…he’d figure something out with the eyes. Perhaps he’d still have enough breathing space to find something to get both.

But somehow, he doubted it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Questions I'm currently asking myself - why, when I have so much trouble keeping Kurapika's internal voice consistent with my understanding of his character, did I decide to WRITE THIS STORY FROM HIS POINT OF VIEW.
> 
> I mean apart from the fact that if it was Leorio's point of view half the story would be the phrases 'Ow' and 'You fucking bastards I'll knock your teeth in' repeated endlessly.
> 
> Damn it, I should have written it from Melody's point of view. Oh well. I've committed now. Hopefully my marriage to this story won't end in divorce.


	3. Chapter 2

Trekking the empty streets in the blistering early morning wind left Kurapika feeling as dead inside as he no doubt looked on the outside.

He’d spent hours the previous day calling Leorio’s university, his apartment building, the hospital he was an intern at and questioning anyone who’d agree to talk to him. Kurapika had an uncomfortably vague impression of the day Leorio had disappeared, and nothing more than triflingly useful to him.

Leorio had been sick for weeks. On the day he’d vanished he’d apparently caved to peer pressure and gone to see someone about it. No story agreed to who or where he’d gone, and Kurapika realised that most of what he was getting was just guesses, not fact. Leorio hadn’t seen fit to tell ANYONE where he was seeing this theoretical doctor, or who they were. He was at medical school. How the hell did he even manage that.

The police had been informed a week after he’d vanished but had found nothing. Melody and had been stonewalled from everything but the bare details. In cases like these (and despite Melody’s requests they’d not explained what ‘cases like these’ meant), the victim was assumed dead after three weeks of no sign or sight of them.

In the end, all Kurapika knew was the day Leorio vanished, the last time he was seen, and the disease he’d contacted. Third World Thorn was only a colloquial name; its medical designation was _Solutio Sanguis Morbo._ Contracted in early childhood, it had such obvious and nasty symptoms that the disease would always be found and cured. A single course of antibiotics and it was disapeared for good. The name came from how the initial symptoms would ease then vanish after a few months, leaving the root of the disease in the chest, lunges, and heart as it begins to mature. It could take years or even decades before the victim became again aware of the thing eating them from the inside out.

It was very difficult to cure at that point. Possible, but expensive and invasive.

The name came from how it was a common killer in developing countries where parents simply couldn’t afford to do anything about the disease and tended to wait it out, relieved when it finally faded. Then the person would sicken and die out of nowhere years later when the disease matured. The blood would grow corrosive and started seeping through the skin, the lunges, and into the chest cavity due to the mutation in their chest. And if the person grew up somewhere poor enough so that the disease wasn’t caught in childhood, then there was rarely the money to cure it when it matured.

It was an unpleasant death, as the victim bled to death from the inside and out.

And it left glowing vine-like patterns on the skin that stayed bright blood red long after death due to the shifted chemical structure of the blood.

It was considered beautiful by sick bastards.

Kurapika wanted to hurt someone, to scream at someone or to or just shut down and pretend none of this was happening. But that wasn’t his nature, only the base impulses he knew well how to ignore.

But that didn’t stop the anger. Anger at himself, for reasons he wasn’t sure were his fault. Angry at Leorio, for reasons that were certainly not his fault. Unfairly angry that he’d have to work with those Lost Hunters. He knew this only from one angle, as an agent of flesh collectors. Only knew it for one reason; searching for pieces of the already dead. He couldn’t risk Leorio’s life on his ability to learn and adapt when he _knew_ he had a better reassures.

And he was grimly enraged at the part of him that wanted this done fast enough to give him space to complete the deal for the eyes. The part that had given him the final push to agree to a face to face meeting with the Lost Hunters to beg their help. The sullen part of his soul that never moved on from when he was a child and that whispered that he might find the Scarlet Eyes if he worked fast enough. That saw this as a rock block, and not a repeat of the past that was tearing his loyalty and his mind to pieces.

But knowing himself so well that didn’t make him feel better. Rather, it made him feel worse. He still wasn’t sure this would be the quickest method. Melody was back at their office, searching for any other leads or trails outside of these Lost Hunters. She hadn’t even hesitated to drop everything to offer her help to save Leorio, and Kurapika found himself horribly grateful to her.

Caught between anger swirling into guilt, fear and determination and tinted with distrust, Kurapika stopped outside a neat little office building on a quiet side street. It had flowers in the window boxes and a cute pastel colour scheme.

He doublechecked the address he’d written into his phone.

A sign outside the door said, ‘those with business, please knock and enter’. Kurapika tightened his lips and gave one rap of his knuckles against the door before pushing his way in.

The foyer looked as little like a regular office as the cutesy outer appearance. A heavyset woman in a sleeveless evening dress was filing away a stake of documents as he entered and turned to raise an eyebrow at him. “You’re Kurapika?”

“Yes.” He almost made it a question but grounded himself at the last moment. He took in her clothes, the room, the watering can on the desk, the dozen plants huddling in the corners, and the quiet sobbing of an overworked computer. It seemed wise not to make any assumptions based on appearance here. “…And you are?”

“I’m the only one here capable of balancing a chequebook and understanding the tax code.” She said, completely failing to give him a proper answer. Twitched her head to the side she continued bluntly, “You’re not what I was expecting, but still, the bosses are expecting you. EAD! Come here and see our guest upstairs. I’ve got too much to do right now to be bothered. You deal with the kid.”

Kurapika twitched and almost walked back out the door. He made himself remember Leorio’s blood covered face and felt enough of the red fade again in time to notice the person creeping in from a side room. The man? Boy? Creature? was male, but beyond that, the one thing that Kurapika was sure of was that this Ead wasn’t human.

He looked like a demon.

Ead stared at him a moment, eyes glistening black from edge to edge. Dark green horns partly hidden by his black hair were oddly less distracting than his lack of eyebrows, and the teeth that glistened with pink spittle. “This way.” Ead’s voice sounded softer than his face implied it would.

He bit his lip and turned away as Kurapika stared a moment longer then was polite, as he tried to figure out if it was an odd twist of genetics or a Nen ability.

The stairs were the steep wooden sort common in houses a few decades old. Kurapika noticed a tail swinging back and forth, bells attached to thin chains and hooped piercings, chiming as he walked.

The floorboards creaked gently the way old homes did. It felt thematically inconsistent for Lost Hunters to work somewhere this ordinary. But then again, Kurapika considered, this might be all they could afford. This group had no official connections to any government and only the loosest link to the Hunter Association. They were practically independent, at least as far as his research had shown. He had refused to walk in blind, but even a few hours of research and a couple of careful phone calls had revealed little. Founded three years ago, they had done several high-profile rescues and been involved in even more court cases involving them pursuing corruption in government institutions. There were hints at dark money,  but considering even the owners of this group were nameless in the public documents that had been harder to chase then the rest.

This building felt like it was own by a penniless but proud old family. It failed to live up even to the vague expectation Kurapika had set, and that rubbed him the wrong way.

“The bosses aren’t good people, but they will help,” Ead said, low voice interrupting Kurapika’s train of thought.

“I’m…sorry?” Kurapika frowned trying to parse that sentence with the titbits he already dug up.

“They’re horrible and worse they don’t understand why they’re horrible.” Ead’s hand fluttered for a moment at his side. “I don’t know why, but for some reason, they help. They’ve decided to help you.”

Kurapika took the final step onto the landing and the narrow hall lined with doors. “They’ve already decided? I thought that’s why I was meeting them in person.”

“If they didn’t intend to agree they never would have told you where we live.” Black eyes turned on him as Ead turned to the first door on the left and stopped, hand on the handle. “You will find your friend if it is possible for them to do it. They found me, after all.”

Kurapika stayed quiet. He wasn’t in the mood to ask why Ead might have needed to be ‘found’. He was pretty sure he could make some guesses as to why Lost Hunters searching the live Flesh Market might have needed to ‘find’ someone who looked like Ead.

Ead opened the door. “In here. Boss? Kurapika is here to see you.”

From inside someone said, “Show him in, and please enter yourself, Ead. You may be needed.”

Kurapika glanced between Ead who was watching him and the open doorway.

He entered.

The sitting room was small and warm with a fire going in the grate. Kurapika took it in at a glanced and noted that it was very well lived in.

A few plush chairs were settled around the fire, and a desk sat off to the side under a window.  Bookshelves covered every available wall, with most of the books having the shape and colour of textbooks. A few medical diagrams were above the desk, the sort of bisection of a body that was helpful to a doctor and nauseating to anyone else.

The second thing he noticed was the gaps in the diagrams on the walls and the empty shelves that looked recently vacated. Now he looked closer the future also had the look of having been part of larger sets, the rest of which were now absent.

The woman by the desk took a step forward and gave a bow of her head. She had a nasal prong over her face, attached to an oxygen tank on wheels at her feet. The faint hiss of oxygen and the crackle of fire mixed oddly. Short silver hair and wrinkled eyes should have made her look grandmotherly.

It didn’t.

“Kurapika. I’ve been expecting you. I am Cameron Inpaenitens. My sister, Campbell, and I run this operation. Your associate connected us. You want us to help you find someone.” Cameron Inpaenitens said.

“You’ll help me?” There was a time for social pleasantries, but Kurapika hadn’t encountered one in a while. “I can give you his name, the photo I found on the dark web, the dealer’s information, his last known location and what disease that made him a target. Is that enough or do I need more? I have a data stick with everything I could find. He’s also a Hunter if that’s important.”

She tapped a finger against the desk twice. “That’s still a long way from enough, but it’s a start. Interesting that he’s a Hunter. But firstly, I want something from you.”

“I know. You want information. I will find you whatever—”

“No. I want your skills as a hunter.” Inpaenitens interrupted smoothly, voice never rising, “In return for taking this case up, when I already have so many I’m trying to save, I want your assurance that one day when I ask you to help me do something, you’ll do it. It’s a trade. I’ll save your friend, and one day, when someone else needs to be assisted, you’ll help me. Details to be filled out at a later date, of course. We’re on a schedule.”

This was off script and vague as hell, but they both knew he was desperate enough that arguing wasn’t an option. He wasn’t getting greed or amusement from her. He couldn’t read _any_ emotion in her face or voice. It was like staring at a very lifelike doll. This impression was only codified by the white suit, neatly pressed, creased and glowing gold in the firelight. He felt himself reaching out to see if Nen was in use. He couldn’t tell one way or the other. She must be using In.

Again, he almost turned and walked out the door. This smelled wrong, something going on that he couldn’t see, but could still sense. But he could still feel Leorio’s eyes on him, even a day since he’d last even glanced at that photo. Melody had agreed with him; they couldn’t do alone, not if he wanted to do more than liberate a corpse.

He already had to go to hell for his family. He didn’t want to have to go there for a friend too.

A deal with the devil it was. He’d pay the price later. “I agree. Now _help me._ ”

“Good. Now you’ve already spoken to Heath when he visited your office, yes?” Inpaenitens waited until he nodded. “Good. Saves introductions. We’ll give him what you know. He’ll find out where your friend was taken. No city is without cameras and the child is an excellent hacker. We’ll narrow the search, and while that’s being done, I’ll do what I do best; ask painful questions until I get answers. I will not tell you what I am going to do, and you will not ask.”

“How will questions help us if we already know where he is.” Kurapika snapped out. He felt like his emotions were burning down steadily, and that he was hanging onto his civility with his teeth.

Inpaenitens sighed, in a mechanical way. “Heath will tell us where. I will find out who. You do know enough about our business to know that names hold…weight? If someone is rash enough to list a name onto a site the one thing you can be sure of is that it’s a lie? And that their real name…well. A lot can be done with a name, and a lot can be undone if that name is missed.”

“…I see.” He replied, teeth feeling tight in his mouth.

“Good.” She continued as if the whole interlude hadn’t happened, “I suggest that you work with Aki and Heath. They are the true hunters after all or at least the ones that do all the running about.” She paused and looked at Ead like one would look at a loaded gun they were considering shooting. “Hm. Maybe we should send Ead along with you.”

“I am working on another case,” Ead said, eyes on the floor. “But if Heath is on ground support I should be there.”

She paused, gaze drifting, “True. This is a better mission. If they’re bold enough to take a man off the streets and strong enough to take a Hunter, they might need you there. Heath and Aki do have a habit of walking into danger. Hm. Come.” She pulled a handle up out of the frame of the oxygen tank and snapped it into place.

Back out in the hall, Kurapika was ushered down more dark corridors to what he thought should be much further back then the building suggested it stretched. The lighting seemed to get worse the deeper they delved, an unwell yellow that flickered incessantly.

He glared at Camron Inpaenitens’ back. Her motivation and emotions seemed like they were currently misplaced, like a glass put down and forgotten. He couldn’t think of another way to phrase it. 

In step beside him behind Inpaenitens, Ead had gone silent, and kept his eyes forward, fixed on her back.

They reached a dark chamber, a massive computer station filling a great deal of it. The desk and computer set up also worked as a division to the back of the room where a bed and a few cabinets were just far enough out of sight, so it was possible to pretend they didn’t exist.

Heath had already turned and was watching them, eyes flicking through a dozen minor emotions. “Boss! Kurapika? Uh, what can I do for you?”

Inpaenitens waved a hand at Kurapika. “He has data on a man he wishes found. Use it. Get as close as you can then track me down a location with Aki and Ead. Take this one too.” She nodded to Kurapika, “I want to see how much use he can be, and he wants his friend back. Find the base and report back. I will take it from there.”

“Understood boss! Leave it to me!” The projected cheer was headache inducing. Ead seemed unaffected, standing quietly next to Kurapika, eyes on the ceiling.

Inpaenitens gave another nod and left. No flair, or drama, the movement so mundane as to leave ‘walked’ as the only good descriptor.

The oxygen tank squeaked along behind her.

No one could have missed the way Heath relaxed the moment she was out of sight.  “Uh…Hi again Kurapika.” Heath gave an unhealthy grin. “Please don’t worry, this is our job. We’ll find your friend. The data please?”

Kurapika kept his eyes trained on the now empty hallway for a moment longer as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck settle. He hadn’t even noticed them rise. Handing over the data chip to Heath he watched him shifting his chair as far away from Kurapika as possible as he began the download.

Emotion reader.

Kurapika took a step back and noted the easing of Heath’s shoulders. 

Either ignorant of his colleague’s discomfort or disinterested in it, Ead sat cross-legged on a clear spot on the desk next to the monitor. Heath didn’t react and continued tapping away at his keyboard. “Tell us about your friend,” Ead said. “Any details will help. I assume you contacted the police?”

“Yes. They said the case was closed. Cold case. It’s been a little over three weeks.” Kurapika said flatly.

Heath said made a face, and hissed between his teeth, “Oh that’s some prime bullshit. Stinks to high heaven that does. Aki could no doubt tell you a dozen ways that violates the code, but I’ll bet they have a hundred defences. That’s why Inpaenitens is pushing us all into this one, isn’t it?”

Ead hummed. “Yes. She thinks it’s one of the big ones.”

“One of the ones we know, or a new one?” Heath asked evenly as his shouldered stiffened.

“No guesses until we have more data.” Ead tapped his fingers against the desk in a muted rhythm.

Heath snapped his fingers down as he typed, in bright, loud clicks. “So! Your friend. What is he?”

Kurapika made a mental note and said out loud, “Medical student.”

“Ah.” Heath started sorting the information at high speed. “And there’s the Hospital he worked at… and his class…damn he got high marks on the entrance exam… internship... Ah. I can see his apartment. Got one to himself eh? Nice for a student. Took so much work to get one to myself when I was doing the study thing and I still had a decent chunk of my inheritance at the time. Annnnd so if that’s his school I should be able to access their server portal like so—!” he hummed for a moment before clattering to a halt. “He’s a Hunter? Oh. Oh, this is bad. Does the boss know?”

“Yes,” Ead said.

“Oh. Well, that’s good.” Heath grimaced. “I’m glad she’s sending you with us, Ead. Kurapika? You can handle yourself in a fight, right?”

“Yes.” Kurapika made a point of not elaborating. “You're not used to going up against Nen users, are you. Are you truely that competent?”

“Ahaha…” Heath scrubbed a hand through his hair, “Well the bosses—”

“I’m not asking about the bosses.” This was the first of any number of things bothering him about this setup and the first time he’d got a reason to take out some of the boiling mess in his head on someone. Holding it in as tight as he could, a bitter, nasty, note still seeped into his voice. “I want to know about _you_. The ones helping me find Leorio. I’m asking if you can track someone who can use Nen and whether or not I’d be better off just walking back out and—”

A soft beep from the computer caught his attention and movement on screen dragged his eye in. A tall, dark figure was walking out of a heavy steel back door, a green cross of chipped paint visible on it.

Kurapika jumped forward, squinting for a moment, before using Nen to sharpen his vision. His fingers dug into the back of Heath’s chair to steady himself. Holding himself ridged, he managed to hold back the tremors in his arms and chest.

The shape of Leorio paused to cough and wiped the palm of his hand into a tissue. He wore a large backpack that forced his steps out of times with its weight. A moment later he walked out of frame, step unstead but determined.

Heath watched Kurapika out of the corner of his eye, shoulders hunched up defensively. “He was last seen for sure at the hospital at two o’clock on the twentieth, according to your notes. The rear camera only activated twice that day, and the side door once. This was caught at two thirty. This is your friend, right?”

Watching with heart again in his mouth, Kurapika swallowed hard as Heath pulled up a few new windows on three of the other monitors. Maps, databases, public records, and the government-run surveillance system. Only the last one gave Heath even a moment’s pause.

“Your friend seemed to have gone through to the back alleys of the city.” Heath tabbed violently through the cameras, feeding off the restless energy of the mood, as he searched for a flash of the black spiky head. “Any idea what he’s doing?”

Kurapika stayed silent. Leorio hated spending money. A product of his childhood. It might be a back-alley doctor he was looking to visit or perhaps it was someone who needed a doctor of their own and the supposed appointment had been later in the day. He could so very easily imagine Leorio walking into a trap to help someone.

Heath traced Leorio partway across the city before crossed into an empty intersection and jogged down a stairway into one of the lower economic housing areas built into what had been an underground railway in better years. Heath tabbed a few more times, flicking from camera to camera view. He hit the fast forward searching for movement. 

“That’s our last known location then," he said. "I’ll keep watching the footage, but I’d bet a lot of money the trail goes cold here. The Old Line is a maze, and with all the entrances and exits your friend could surface anywhere. He could be outside the city itself for all we would know. Ead? Do you know were Aki is? I haven’t felt her anywhere today. If we’re going investigating, we want her on the scene, right?”

“Station. She’s working. I’ll call her. Where are we going to?”

Heath rattled off a series of addresses, and finished with, “— tell her to go to the apartment first. Always a good idea to check there first. Got it?”

Ead grunted and dropped off the table and pushed past Kurapika. Not harshly, but it was just enough of a deviation that Kurapika noticed.

Kurapika forced his hands free of the chair and took a few deliberate steps away, trying to keep his breathing even. Heath stayed hunched, the video flickering on the screen as it played almost too fast to see except for the Nen letting him keep up. By the faint glow of his eyes, Heath was doing the same.

Pushing down on his emotion required more effort then he could muster. The room spun, and he felt sick with hope and terror. Clenching his fist tight enough to ache he concentrated on shutting down his emotions, one by one, shoving them down and viciously eviscerating them until he could breathe again.

His head cleared as a dead emptiness settled into his chest, and Kurapika shifted his weight from one foot to the other and turned his attention back to Heath. “I apologise for my comment before.”

“It’s fine. You’re scared for your friend.” Heath paused the video and sent Kurapika a tentative smile. “If someone did that to Ead I’d probably feel much the same. Heh. Okay, I’d feel worse, but that’s how I work. Then again you feel pretty bad about all of this. It’s okay. Well. It’s not. It’s really not, but we’ve been doing this for years now. I’m sure we can do this. We’ll get your friend back. Promise!”

Kurapika twitched his eyes away. “Don’t make promises. Just don’t. Please.”

He could feel Heath staring at him, “Oh. I'm sorry. I really am.” 

Ead snapped his phone shut and walked back. “I’ve given Aki the location. We’ll meet her at the apartment and work out from there. I told her it was an emergency. She says she can’t make it until this afternoon, and to even manage that she’s going to have to call in sick.”

“How’s she planning to call in sick while AT work?” Heath tipped his head to the side.

“She plans to throw up on a co-worker. Then walk out. Seems to be sound. Says she learned it from you.”

“Ha, ha, ha. Very funny.” Heath scowled and threw himself back in his chair, staring at the screen. “Well going hunting without her isn’t going to achieve much. And I did want to sort through as much footage around the area to check for known faces as I can, and see if I can trace Leorio’s movements for at least the week before he disappeared. So. Kurapika. Are you willing to wait a few hours?”

Kurapika nodded tightly. “It makes tactical sense.”

“But you don’t like wasting time.” Heath prompted.

“No.” Kurapika folded his arms and looked pointedly at the monitor. “But it still makes sense. And I to want to know what Leorio was doing the week before. I can’t do this any other way and if Aki is as vital to your work as you say…”

“She is.” Ead said.

“—Then I’ll wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The balls rolling now - time to see where it goes!
> 
> Thank you for reading~


	4. Chapter 3

It was hours later that Heath flicked his computer system off, leaving Kurapika to step back out of his way as he grabbed up a laptop.  
  
Four hours had given Heath time to sort through and trail Leorio over the last week before he vanished into the Old Line. Leorio had visited the Old Line twice in just the week they tracked him. Kurapika’s theory that Leorio had been helping someone down there was further strengthened by the sheer volume of supplies that he carried about but suggested they he was involved in more than just a single case.  
  
All the better the chance they could find someone who could help them narrow the search.  
  
Heath stuck his head around the divide of desks to were Ead had got to nap on the sofa while they worked. “Hey, Ead?” Heath waited until there was a grunted response as Ead wandered out of the corner he’d been sitting in. “Think we can borrow one of the cars?”  
  
“And get who to drive it?” Ead raised an eyebrow. “Carlotta?”  
  
“Uh, think we can bribe her into it? Damn it, never mind; it’s tax season. She’d skin us if we dared to try it. I wonder if I can talk Camron into letting us hire a taxi…”  
  
“I can drive,” Kurapika said, making both stare at him.  
  
Ead gave a slow nod. “Good.”  
  
“Halleluiah!” Heath gave a brilliant smile and all but jumped towards the same hall Kurapika had walked down. “No public transport!”  
  
Out in the hall Heath slowed until Ead caught him and immediately started talking again about the route they should take. Kurapika listened silently, keeping track of the directions fitted in between various meaningless observations. Every few steps Heath bumped his shoulder into Ead’s, with the same practiced rhythm as a pendulum.  
  
Kurapika didn’t feel hopeful. He never allowed himself to feel hopeful. He wasn’t even sure that was something he could feel. Instead he sunk all the mess of his emotions firmly into determination. The familiar feeling of a foundation that let him keep above the struggle in his head. One step in front of the other.  
  
He tried to remember that he was doing this because he cared. But right now? Right now it was easier to do it because he _must_.  
  
Clattering down the stairs to the front office Heath paused and stiffened before entering the main office.  
  
“Afternoon boss!” he said, fake cheer bouncing off the walls.  
  
A woman with the same stark white hair as Camron Inpaenitens, except for its greater length, stood over the desk the accountant was still working at. She looked as unwell as her sister, but for entirely different reasons, mainly centered around the wire holding her jaw shut and the deep purple of a recently broken nose.  
  
Unlike her sister’s inhumanly neat clothes she wore old tweed pants with dark brown stains on them, and a ratty blue tie done up loosely over a grey shirt.  
  
She didn’t glance up at them as she raised a hand and made a come-hither gesture.  
  
Heath winced and sidled over. “Uh, hi Boss what do you—You want to know what we’re doing. We’re going on a mission Camron.” Pausing he scrubbed at his hair, “Yes, it’s a new one.” Another gap filled with the noise of the overworked computer. “No, we don’t yet know what name’s behind this group.”  
  
Campbell Inpaenitens hummed, looked up, and pointed at a map that hung on the wall.  
  
“Ah.” Heath frowned at the map, and back at Campbell. “I don’t know?” he pointed vaguely at the top right section of the map. “That’s where the victim was last seen. We’re starting there.”  
  
Campbell tapped a finger to her chin and stared for a moment at the map.  
  
“You…You’re going to be in that area?” Heath’s voice pitched a little too high, and he gave a wide smile. “Ah! Great. When?”  
  
She flapped her hand at Heath, and then pointed at the door.  
  
“Ah! You’re not sure. Good! Uh, we’ll just go…do…the thing. Yes. Do the thing! If we end up needing help, we’ll message you, okay? Have a safe trip! By the way, we’re taking one of the cars! That’s okay, right? It is? Good! Bye Boss!” Heath almost ran for the door, and it wasn’t until there were around the back of the building in a small open carpark that he relaxed again. Or at least as much as he ever seemed to relax.  
  
“—we’ll do a bit a regular sweep and chat to the neighbours, and deal with the Old Line when we’ve figured out if there was anything extra involved with this case. With any luck, it will all just be a matter of getting the pieces in order. First the apartment, next to the Old Line, after that we should have enough direction to make it up from there. Yeah, I thought that would be a good idea—”  
  
Kurapika sighed internally and bolstered his tolerance as high as it could go.  
  
The car was old but well maintained and ran smoothly enough so that Kurapika had little to distract him from the constant chatter from the back seat. Ead was in the front seat passenger seat, as Heath took up the whole three backseats with the equipment he kept permanently in the car.  
  
It took a half hour of driving with the constant, drifting, background chatter for Kurapika to get bored enough to interrupt and try fish for some useful information. “If you hate public transport enough to be willing to pay a taxi to drive you eight hours why haven’t you gotten a license? It’s not hard.”  
  
He heard the nervous laugh as Heath avoided his gaze in the review mirror. “Well…you see I can’t turn the feeling emotions thing off. So, you see, if anyone around me, a very long way around me, gets really worked up I tend to faint. Unexpectedly. See how that might be a problem on a busy road full of traffic?”  
  
“Why haven’t you tried to mitigate the ability with your Nen? You’ve got enough control to use Gyo at least, so why not try and change the limitations of your ability? Or at least mitigate them, so they’re not as inconvenient.”  
  
“I can’t. I have almost no control over it.” Heath rubbed a hand through his hair. “Uhh…It’s like…I got it too young. And I was under a lot of pressure at the time. No one’s even quite sure how it functions, though Camron—though the boss tried to help me with it.”  
  
“No one else thought it might be a problem before you became a hunter?” Kurapika asked.  
  
“Jarleth's been living with the bosses since he was a kid.” Ead volunteered in a deadpan voice that promised no more answers. “They tried to fix him. They failed.”  
  
Heath’s head was ducked down enough so Kurapika now couldn’t see his face. “It’s fine. I function. Not that big a deal I can’t drive.”  
  
Kurapika didn’t ask a follow-up question.  
  
Still trying to parse the usefulness of his companions, Kurapika tried to sort out what little he knew. A lot of hunters tended to hide their abilities until they had to use them but having a hunter this much of a potential liability seemed foolish.  
  
Ead ended the silence of his own volition a moment later, “I eat emotions.” He said.  
  
Kurapika, jerked from his thoughts, managed, “Yes?”  
  
“That’s how I fight. I’m telling you so that if I must use you as a source, you won’t freak out. It won’t hurt or change you, but it does feel odd. Got it?”  
  
Kurapika gave himself the duration of turning about a three-lane roundabout to think, before asking, “How would it affect me if you use me as a source?”  
  
“It resets a person emotionally. Think of it of being shocked out of rage, or stopped dead laughing. I take the strongest surface emotion and leave you to rebalance afterward. Most people only need a moment unless I'm purposefully trying to hurt them.”  
  
“What’s you need him for?” Heath asked petulantly. “Aren’t I battery enough?”  
  
“Always good to have back up plans.” Ead shrugged. “Aki panicked when I did it to her. I think panicking Kurapika would end badly. For me.”  
  
Kurapika almost snorted but couldn’t resist a slighted upturn of his mouth. “That is not an unfair assessment. You both passed the Hunter Exam at the same time, didn’t you?”  
  
“Yes,” Ead said.  
  
Kurapika took a certain amount of satisfaction from watching Heath’s face worked through several expressions. “How on earth did you know that. That wasn’t even a guess; you were already certain of the answer!”  
  
Kurapika let himself give a slight twitch of a smile as he met Heath’s eyes in the mirror. “You couldn’t pass the exam alone, but if Ead used your emotions as a power source, I bet that would still count. I looked you up. There was contention over you getting your licence. It’s because you only passed due to being in a team with Ead, isn’t it?”  
  
Heath stared for a moment before laughing. “Damn. Yeah, that’s how I passed on my third try. But to be fair Ead failed when he tried to pass without me. It’s impossible for him to fight without a good source and people tend to, uh, get nasty when he just randomly picks someone. A bit of a shock to most people.”  
  
“Aki decked me and broke my nose when I surprised her,” Ead said. “Don’t want a repeat. Hence the warning. You look like you could get nasty.”  
  
Mind flicking back to the office Kurapika built up the lead into the question hovering at the back of his awareness since he’d seen Campbell Inpaenitens. “How did Inpaenitens, the one I saw in the lower office, get hurt? Seems odd to see only the boss hurt. Do the Inpaenitens’ go on missions alone?”  
  
He almost felt the shifting discomfort, Ead frowned as he stared at the road, and Heath tried to look as busy as possible playing on his setup.  
  
A few moments later Ead volunteered. “They often run solo operations. Only Camron tells us about them ahead of time. We don’t know what Campbell does. Rare for us to even know where she is half the time.”  
  
“You told me that you believe they’re bad people. What did that mean.” Kurapika asked.  
  
“Bloody hell Ead.” Heath groaned, flailing forward to stick his head between the front seats. “You still going on about that?”  
  
“It’s the truth,” Ead said. “It’s not like they’re nice people.”  
  
“We’ve talked about this! You need to stop introducing people to the bosses like that!”  
  
Kurapika cut in again. “What did you mean.” He said, sharpening his voice enough to make Heath flinch back.  
  
“They took up this business three years ago. Don’t know what they did before. But. The Flesh Marketers we hunt fear them far, far more than they should.”  
  
Heath made a distressed noise and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “They’re Hunters Ead! Why the hell do you think people are scared of them? I’ve known them since I was seven and I’m scared of them! What sane person would want to be at the end of Camron’s Judge, Jury, and Executioner?”  
  
Ead spoke quickly, piling up his words together and shoving them relentlessly at Kurapika. “This isn’t about dragging you into our problem. You’re desperate to help your friend, but you know they feel wrong. Act wrong. And you’ll soon notice they think wrong. I want to you to know that we know too. Understood?  
  
Kurapika tried to figure out where the gaps and implications fell here. Ead and Heath were odds here, and Ead was attempting to drag him in as…what. A third party? As a tool to use? Or was this a very poorly thought-out warning?  
  
He was here to get Leorio back. He didn’t care about the fractured interoffice politics unless it was going to interfere with him. Nevertheless, something about the Inpaenitens sisters worried him enough so that he didn’t want to ignore Ead’s increasingly annoying, cryptic verbal wanderings.  
  
But this circular and pointless line of questioning was annoying. And he wasn’t about to get a clear answer. Time to shut this down until Ead decided to state his opinions, rather than wander about them like a lost rabbit.  
  
“No,” Kurapika said. “And for now, I don’t care. We have a working relationship here. I’m a Blacklist Hunter, and I work with Flesh Collectors. I don’t care who or what your boss is any more then I care about them. Do you understand?”  
  
“…Yes. That was informative. Thank you.” Ead turned to look out the side window.  
  
Heath sagged back noisily. “Well, that was profoundly uncomfortable. Let’s not do that again.” He snorted. “Glad to know you agree with me Kurapika. Ow. Stop it. I did just tell you I can’t turn the empathy off.”  
  
“But you can resist from the running commentary of my emotions,” Kurapika said shortly, speeding up to overtake a convoy of trucks.  
  
“Where would the fun in that be?” Heath replied, grinning at whatever nonverbal part of the conversation was only apparent to him.  
  
Kurapika ignored him and concentrated on driving. Silence fell, and his thoughts drifted back to Leorio. These Lost Hunters so far weren't doing anything he couldn’t do himself, but they did have better technical equipment and resources. But maybe this would still be enough. Or maybe he should start mentally preparing for if he didn’t make it in time—  
  
“Did you know that snails can sleep for three years?” Heath asked from the back seat, not looking up from his computer. “I mean I think it’s like only this one sort of snail, but that’s still a fair old while. I wonder if that’s continuous sleep or if they do the bear hibernation thing of waking up a little and rolling over now and then. Seems like a good use of a few years. Wonder if I could get some snails as pets and try and give them the life they deserve with infinite naps and loads of friends. Ha. Snail friends. I’m getting some snails as pets when we get back, okay Ead?”  
  
Kurapika felt derailed enough by the tangent that he had to stamp down on his annoyance. Then he realised what it had derailed him from and grew a little more thoughtful. He was unsure if Heath was trying to distract him, but the rambling was less annoying then it had been.  
  
“Make sure you feed them,” Ead said.  
  
“Of course, I’ll feed them. They’ll be my little pals. I’m going to make them a little home and—”  
  
It was still annoying. But compared to his thoughts?  
  
He’d take the snails.  
  
****  
  
The rapidly cooling evening felt unpleasant as the twisting in Kurapika’s gut.  
  
The easy bit turned out to be finding Leorio’s building, a solid fifteen minutes’ walk from the hospital. The aged and withering stone block was an awkward shape and showed its decades with a flacking facade.    
  
The hard part was getting the key to get into his room. Kurapika had assumed that the Lost Hunters had enough clout to walk into places under investigation. Turns out either they didn’t, or Ead and Heath were just such untrustworthy individuals as to make them banned from even this theoretical list.  
  
In a small room off the entrance hall, Heath was bend double as he tried to make sure the little man in a lounge chair could hear him. A small tv muttered on a stand next to the wall of mailboxes. Heath kept raising his voice in pitch, and Kurapika privately thought he was trying to talk over the smell of apple cider vinegar.  
  
“Look, we _need_ to go into his room,” Heath said. “He’s been missing for weeks now, right? You know him well enough to be worried, but I assume you—”  
  
“I didn’t tell the police anything. I’m not telling you anything. You can rot for a thousand years until the stench rises from hell and I still won’t move.”  
  
The landlord was an old man, ragged with age as the building he oversaw, but with nerves of steel and zero fucks given about anything. Kurapika would have been impressed if he hadn’t been in their way. Standing at the back of the room Kurapika leaned into Ead. “Are we likely to get anywhere here or is this going to keep going to go on for eternity.”  
  
“It’s a mystery,” Ead said evasively.  
  
Kurapika gave him a sour look and stepped forward. “Leorio was taken by traffickers.” He cut in, ignoring Heath in favor of focusing on the landlord. “We want to save him. But to do that we need your cooperation. What do we need to do or say to convince you we want to help?”  
  
“Your story is shitting all over the Police’s story and if I didn’t trust those pigs what makes you think I’ll trust you, blondie—” he stopped dead and stared for long enough for Heath to start looking as uncomfortable as Kurapika felt.  
  
“Sir? You alright there?” Heath asked.  
  
“I know you!” The man snapped, poking a bony finger at Kurapika. “I’ve seen your picture in his apartment! You’re that mystery girlfriend of his, aren’t you?”  
  
Kurapika felt himself cycle through the five stages of grief in under three seconds. The look of Heath’s face suggested he, was suffering from Kurapika’s emotional whiplash, but Kurapika didn’t care about him. Seeing the milky white of caterexs in the landlord’s eyes helped him overlook the line about being a girl. Being part blind was one of the easily excused reasons for mistaking his gender, and it was hardly the first time this had happened.  
  
The girlfriend line _had_ thrown him, but there was no need to make a big deal out of it. It was just a... very odd idea. That was all. There were far more important things to speak of. Time to move this forward and remind them all why they were here.  
  
“I’m not his…girlfriend, but I am his friend. And we both know that Leorio is in a lot of trouble. These are my…friends. We’re looking to find him before it’s too late. We both know that the chances of finding a victim in a scenario like this goes down the longer it takes, and it’s been three weeks. I know he’s still alive for now, but I have no idea how long I’ve got. All I know is that he was near The Old Line, but other than that? We're in the dark and I’m—” Kurapika took a quick breath in, and forced himself to finish the sentence, “—I’m terrified that I’m going to run out of time before I can find him. Please help me.”  
  
For a speech made up to appease an old man, Kurapika felt a little shocked how much emotion was running through him and how much he truly meant it. He didn’t like how little he seemed to trust that he’d make it in time. How hard it had been to finish that sentence out loud.  
  
He fought to escape that thought as the old man folding his hands into his lap. “You think he’s still alive, do you?”  
  
“I know he’s still alive.” Kurapika sunk his fingernails into his palms. “But he won’t be for much longer.”  
  
“Look behind the door, will you?” he waited for Ead to pull the door partly shut, to reveal neatly hung hooks with keys organised on a grid. “He’s on the third floor. Room six. Bring him back, you hear?”  
  
Heath did his best reassuring smile, unbending a little as Ead retrieved the key. “We’ll do our best, sir.”  
  
The old man glared at Heath, “Paradinight's a decent kid. Helped me out when I got pneumonia a few months ago. Checked in for weeks afterwards. I don’t know much, the boy keeps to himself for all that he’s constantly blasting through here, the force of nature that he is. But I’d suggest asking the wee girly a few doors down from him. Kimmy knows more then she lets on, that I’m sure of. Odd girl, she is.” He paused, looking back over at Kurapika with his milky white eyes, “It’s good he has friends that check up on him.”  
  
Guilt again, loud as a bell in his head chiming ‘ _three weeks, three weeks_ ,’ but muffled the moment Heath turned a stare on him.  
  
“Thank you.” Kurapika said, “We’ll do our best.”  
  
A few reassuring and pointless words later and they were outside, climbing to the third floor. The stairs were narrow, tiled, brightly lit and steep.  
  
Heath hummed and tilted his head back as he listened to it echo with the unease of a spoon dropped in a cathedral. Kurapika braced himself, reading for the expected commentary on his thoughts.  
  
But instead Heath said, “He's scared. He’s sure your friend's in too deep, and he still doesn’t trust us. I don’t know what he thinks your friend’s mixed up in, but it’s bad enough so that he’s as scared of the police as he is for Leorio.”  
  
The depths of whatever mess Leorio had gotten dragged into got deeper with every step he tried to take towards him, Kurapika thought dully.  
  
The third floor was dim but warmer than the chilled stairway, and carpeted floors let their footsteps return to a reasonable pitch. The doorway to the stairs boomed shut behind them. Counting their way down to the apartment door took only a few moments. Kurapika tried to ignore the shaking in his hands as Ead opened the door.  
  
The kitchen had little more than a table piled with textbooks, papers, scrawled diagrams and notes in Leorio’s frantic script and mouldy plates. The wall space around the door was covered in photos, a number of people that Kurapika had never met, and a few he had. There were quite a number of him, Gon and Killau.  
  
Nothing was disturbed. It hadn’t been long enough for dust to settle, but the smell of disuse clung to the walls. The small room had two doors on the square the far wall that wasn’t taken up by the tiny kitchenette.  
  
Kurapika peered through the first door and into a cold, narrow bedroom with an unmade bed and a wet patch on the floor where rain had come in the open window. He could hear the tinny dripping of the bathroom tap through the wall. And the sound someone moving about.  
  
Heath stood frowning at the second door, then his face relaxed, and he rolled his eyes. “Aki beat us here.” He said and shoved the door open.  
  
Aki looked up from where she was kneeling on the floor, staring into the toilet. “Much easier when you break in. Window was open and everything.” She said.  
  
Kurapika wondered if he should point out they were on the third floor before deeming it a moot point. He could have easily managed the same if he’d decided a third-floor window was more accessible then the door.  
  
“I like not getting arrested.” Heath said.  
  
“I like doing my job.” Aki stalked pass Heath and nodded to Kurapika. “Bad second meeting, eh? Sorry about your friend. On the plus side you’ll defiantly get to take out that aggression of yours soon.” She turned on Ead. “Said the victim had Third World Thorn, yes? You know how bad he had it?”  
  
“He was in the fourth stage three days ago.” Ead said.  
  
Aki pursed her lips, mouthing numbers under her breath. “Lines up. I found old traces of blood in the toilet. Enough so I can still smell it a month later. He was throwing up blood before he was taken, only trace amounts, and it hadn’t broken the skin or there’s no way the hospital wouldn’t have allowed him to work. Besides, I expect our doctor boy would have noticed that one. If we assume it had only just started… Yeah. That’s proof that the picture and the rest is set in real time. Good for us. Gives us a few weeks.” She waved a hand at a neat stack of papers next to the sink. “Found those. Records of medical supplies and the like bought in bulk; dude was up to something. Might give us a lead.”  
  
“Was last seen entering Old Line with a heavy backpack.” Ead nodded to Heath. “Tracked him. Lost him underground. Didn’t return. He’d visited it a few times in the week before he was taken.”  
  
Aki narrowed her eyes, “Ead. Really. Another incomplete file.”  
  
Ead shrugged. “Didn’t know about his trips when I texted. Seemed too much trouble to send a second one.”  
  
A sudden rush of footsteps in the hall caught Kurapika’s attention, along with the sharp movement of Heath hunching in on himself.  
  
He readied his chains.  
  
The door slammed open, kicked open and accompanied by a roared, “Hands up thieves!”  
  
A gun pointed at them, shaking in a tight grip, but fingers not yet on the trigger.  
  
Heath cowered, “We’re here legally! I swear!”  
  
Aki and Ead ignored her.  
  
“One day you’re going to miss out important information, and I’m going to end up with an innocent body on my hands. I want you to know it will be all your fault.” Aki grumbled, tapping the papers on the table.  
  
“I’ll risk it.”  
  
“Yeah because it wouldn’t be your neck on the line, buster! I’d like you to explain to my boss why I just took down a little old grandmother for Human Trafficking all because you forgot to include an age!”  
  
“You’re not that dumb.”  
  
“Oh? Ohhh? And how dumb do you think I am?”  
  
Kurapika glanced between the arguing pair, Heath’s terrified smile and the angry girl and sighed. “You’re one of Leorio’s friends, aren’t you?” he said giving the gun an unimpressed stare. “So am I. I’m here to find him.”  
  
“Oh. Oh my god. You’re Kurapika.”  
  
Kurapika privately wondered how much Leorio talked about him if two people had now recognised him without him needing to introduce himself. “Yes. I am. And you are?”  
  
She lowered the gun and slid it into a holster hidden under a bathrobe, with enough practiced ease to make Kurapika wonder if her misuse of the gun had been an act. “Kimmy. Kimmy Huston. Please call me Kimmy.” She shifted from foot to foot. “I…uh…thought you were…breaking in.”  
  
Kurapika sorted back through his memory and found he knew the name, and not just from the landlord. It had come up a few times in the voicemails, generally accompanied by an annoyed or amused complaint about her force of will and lung capacity. “I’ve heard of you too.” He said.  
  
“Ah, really?” she rolled her eyes. “All bad I assume.”  
  
“No. More…interesting than bad.”  
  
Kimmy raised an eyebrow. “Lier. Uh, sorry about the threatening to shoot you thing.”  
  
“You thought we were whoever took Leorio,” Heath said, unbending a little, smile still too wide to be comforting or friendly. “It’s a fair expectation. But don’t worry we hunt people like that down. It’s our job. We’re Lost Hunters.”  
  
“You find those taken by the Live Flesh Market?” Kimmy asked, leaning forward, an odd twitch developing in the corner of her eye.  
  
“Uh, yes? How did you know about the Live Flesh Market—”  
  
“There are people who do that for a job?” she interrupted, smile gaining a manic edge.  
  
“Yes.” Heath said and immediately looked highly worried, “Uh, what are you—”  
  
She almost exploded with rage. “THAT DAMNED STUBORN MORON! I told him! I told him! And did he bleeding listen? NO! Let’s not listen to Kimmy and get back up! I said he should check his bloody hunter network! If the bloody BASTARD EVER LISTENED WE COULD HAVE SOLVED THIS MONTHS AGO! And YOU—!” She turned on Kurapika, “You're involved with them!” she waved a finger at Kurapika, and he had a moment of irrational relief she’d put the gun away. “He told me that you weren’t interested in this sort of thing and was too busy to help! When I find him, I’m going to rip his DAMNED LIVER OUT AND FEED IT TO HIM!” She finished at a scream before giving a few hard coughs to clear her throat. She took a moment to straighten her dressing gown, before continuing in a far more normal voice. “And then I’m going to drag him to a hospital and get him fixed up because I’m a good friend who understands that people sometimes need to go to doctors. Unlike SOME people I won’t name. Sorry about that. Bit of pent up emotion there. It’s been a _long_ few weeks. Oh. Kurapika? Your friend seems to have fainted. Is that normal?”


	5. Chapter 4

Fifteen minutes later Heath was awake, less green and drinking hot chocolate with Kimmy who’d offered it as an apology.

Her apartment was identical of Leorio’s except for the minor differences of the stink of chemicals, and the kitchen's trasformation into a lab. Kurapika swore he could smell burning, but apparently that was normal and absolutely nothing to worry about. Kimmy, Heath and Aki were seated at a table who mere existence looked like a heath hazed, while Ead sat on the floor in the corner next to a pile of clothes and Kurapika stood next to the door.

Kimmy took a mouth full of coffee, the only other foodstuff her kitchen was set up to produce. She’d dropped her dull dressing gown on a pile of clothes next to the door. Kurapika saw it as comfirmation that her introduction had been a heavily calculated move.

On the table, among the experimental beakers, and dinner plates of purposefully cultured mould sat a rough hand-drawn map, with a section marked out in red.

“—and that was the last time I saw him. I’ve marked out where I know he’s been recently, and who’s patche he was working in. There’s gang turf down there, but I know a lot of them. Tell them you’re hunting the bastards taking people and most of them would help out real fast. I’ve got like a half dozen hard and digital copies of this map, but this is the ones the only one with Leorio’s area and route marked out. No one other than the locals and his supervisor and teachers no one else seems to have even noticed he’s gone. Those pig bastards police turned up a few weeks back, but Old Lenard sent em packing after they started asking weird questions.”

“Weird questions? Explain. the police may be dumb as rocks, but its better than going it on your own, which you seem to have been doing.” Aki said.

Kimmy glared but still said, “Weird questions about the other stuff my group get up to. Leorio’s barely involved with us, but they were treating him like a ring leader.” She licked her lips and glanced about at all of them. “You’re sure he was taken and not just killed?”

“Yes,” Kurapika said. “We’re sure.”

A flash of what almost looked like relief crossed her face.

“Seen Flesh Markets pictures ourselves.” Ead volunteered.

The relief vanished, and a flash of fear bordering on terror crossed it, and Heath winced. “Oh.” She breathed. “It was the Fresh Flesh Market. Damn it all, we suspected, but it was impossible to prove.”

Kurapika leaned forward, “Did Leorio know that the Fresh Flesh Market was involved?”

“Yes. Well, he didn’t ‘know’ but, he was the one who was the surest. Its why he joined us.”

Leorio got into this mess because he was hunting flesh collectors. Kurapika swallowed hard, massaging the chains on his fingers. Damn Leorio. Couldn’t he have been a selfish bastard just for once?

Kurapika shut down the though in time to catch Aki asking, “You keep alluding to this ‘us’.” Aki folded her arms. “What is it you do?”

“Okay. So I set this little thing up a few years ago when I got here.  I’m a pharmacy student, yeah? You know much money medicines, and drugs go for in shops? Even around here most people can’t afford that shit. Certainly not those in The Old Line. But! I can now make lots of em.”

“You’re running an illegal drug ring?” Aki asked, eyebrows rising, “Can you hook just anyone up? Asking for a friend.”

Kimmy narrowed her eyes. “Tell your friend to shove it. I give out basic shit like painkillers, insulin, antibiotics and so on, ya know? Nothing dangerous or of interest to the likes of you. I give them out for free most of the time, considering I can get the ingredients at cost. We’re not big enough for the companies to care about but I like to think we make a difference, you know?”

“How is Leorio barely involved?” Aki prodded.

Kimmy emptied her cup and shoved her chair back to paced to the kitchen counter. “People have been going missing. Especially in the Old Line. We were pretty sure they’re working for the Fresh Flesh Markets, because of who they take, but how do you prove that sort of thing if the Police don’t care?”

Aki leaned her elbows on the table. “You keep saying that. As a police officer, I feel like I should tell you that flesh collectors and human traffickers are one of the things we always oppose.”

Kimmy almost dropped her mug. “You’re a fucking copper?”

Aki smiled. “Despite two separate murder attempts by my fellow officers? Yes. I am. So tell me; what stinks in the local force? I know the local commissioner. I would have sworn that she was a bitch, and prone to lubricating her palms with gold, but not a murder.”

After a moment where Kimmy pursed her lip, she glanced away and turned her back to flick the kettle on. “I don’t know why they don’t listen to me. All I know is they were more interested in the help we’re giving, than the people who go missing. Or at least they were. Now that it’s just me giving out meds they don’t care much.”

“You hate the coppers a lot for just that.”

“Half of the students I got to volunteer with me just ended up leaving cus they were worried they’d be next to be taken by the traficers or that they’d be brought in for ‘questioning’ by the cops.” Kimmy slammed a cupboard open and grabbed a jar of the instant coffee. “That those were equal worries should tell you all you want to know. I mean, by the time Leorio joined up I was about to throw in the towel. He got told by one of the guys about this whole ‘people vanishing’ thing and so figured he’d help. Something about free time he didn’t have, and wantings to stop people going missing. As a Hunter himself, he figured even if he never found a bloody thing, at least he could still pass on the meds without being in as much danger as the rest of us. He’d only been helping me a month before he vanished.”

“How long people been vanishing around here?”

“Seven or eight months?” Kimmy poured out the bubbling water and curled her hands around her coffee. “I couldn’t tell you how many have vanished, but they’re still disappearing. I go down there fairly often, so I can tell you that people still vanish.”

“See this is what I was talking about.” Aki’s tapped a finger on the table, “You stupid? Why do you keep sticking your head in the nest of vipers?”

“Someone has to.” Kimmy muttered crossing back to the table where she stood gripping her mug in both hands.

Kurapika narrowed his eyes at her. It was unfair that this girl was still sitting here in one piece after getting Leorio kill—Putting Leorio through this. “After a Hunter proved to be too weak to save himself, you think you’ll do better?” he said coldly.

Kimmy lifted her chin her and met his eye dead on, “I got him involved; I had to try something. I didn't want to leave him to rot without trying. Besides without Leorio no one was left to deliver the medicine. Someone had to.”

Kurapika twitched at the sense of familiarity, pushed away the impression and instead said, “You’re an idiot.” 

“People say that about most things I do.” she glanced about, “Can you find him? There’s nothing else useful I can tell you but tell me to do something that will help, and I will do it.”

“No, that’s all we need to hear.” Heath pushed back the empty cup. “You’ve done good telling us this. This gives us a better lead then we could hope for. Ead?”

“On it.” Ead was already pulling out the phone and walking for the door.

Kurapika followed Ead’s movements with his eyes as he exited the door and shut it behind him. He heard the first low murmur of ‘boss?’ before it was too far to hear.

Aki gave Kimmy her best customer service smile, “Well this was fun. Good luck with getting yourself killed. Excuse me; I want a final turn about the apartment before we go. Heath? You finish up here.” She exited after Ead.

Heath stared down at his cup again for a moment, as the footsteps faded away but made no move to get up. Kimmy shifted frowning at him then at Kurapika.

Kurapika almost left, but paused for a moment, and took a good look at Kimmy. A moment later he pin pointed what he recognised in her expression. Guilt. Well hidden behind a mask, but still there. Heath glanced at him, waited to meet his stare, and shifted his eyes towards the door and back.

Kurapika folded his arms and turned his attention to Kimmy. “What is it?” he asked her.

“What is what?” she looked puzzled.

“What you’re hiding.”

“I’m not hiding anything!” she looked offended, but the tension of guilt left her face tight and tense.

Heath sighed, “Thank you for the drink.” He threw a look back at Kurapika. “And thank you for your tack. I was hoping you’d take the hint and leave. This would have been easier without you breathing down her neck.”

Kurapika stalked forward, hands clenched his sides. “What do you know about the people that took Leorio.”

“She’s scared for herself.” Heath pinched his nose. “What I want to know is why you were so scared when I mentioned the Live Flesh Market. For some reason you don’t want us to know that, even though you told us. No,” he continued, mouth forming into a tight frown. “It’s not that, but its something connected to it.”

Kimmy stared back; eyes dark. “If you can feel that, then I want you to concentrate really hard and think about why I would hide this.”

She jumped when Kurapika slammed his hands down onto the table. Eyes burning, Kurapika asked in a low voice, “I assure you that I can imagine far worse then you could project. Do you want me to show you the pictures I found? The ones where Leorios dying and people what to cut him up for it? He’s got Third World Thorn, you know it, I assume?”

Kimmy’s hands jolted, spilling coffee. Hissing she all but threw the cup onto the table as the content splashed free. “Fuck.” Kimmy rubbed her eyes. “I’m not hiding anything to do with this damned case; it’s just a coincidence that won’t leave me alone! Got it?”

Taking a breath and ready to try and force an answer out of her Kurapika found himself cut off my Heath. “Please shut up Kurapika,” Heath said quietly, eyes on Kimmy, “I know when I’m being lied to about something important. You saw something or were told something in the Old Line. You have this odd emotional connection with that place. Protectiveness, fear and the feeling of being haunted by something specific. Now that could be that you lost a friend there, but this feels too specific. Why do the police scare you and the old man downstairs so much more than knowing a man was taken by Flesh Hunters.”

Kimmy closed her eyes. “…You didn’t hear this from me. In fact, we’ve just spent the last few minutes talking about whether the hot chocolate was out of date.”

“Yes that’s exactly—wait, was it?”

“No. What kind of idiot do you think I am? I’m the sort of idiot who goes looking for human traffickers, not the sort who keeps food past the use by. Those are usually bullshit anyway.” Kimmy glared for a moment and looked away sighing, the noise cutting across Kurapika nerves as the tension in him coiled ever tighter. “I heard a name from a woman who hid under the bed as her husband. The flesh collector at work in the Old Line is The Devil Surgeon.”

Heath’s intake of breath was as sudden as it was loud. “Oh.”

“I don’t know if it’s true. It can’t be true. But it’s what I was told. She would know. Her husband got out of bed and walked out of bed with him. Do you know anyone else that can make their prey follow them like lambs with a word?”

Kurapika frowned, pressing his fingers into his leg. Everyone who worked in flesh markets knew that title, even if they didn’t know what it meant. The Devil’s Surgeon established the modern Fresh Flesh Markets. He claimed to deal with the souls of the damned still on earth and led them like lambs into a hell of his own devising. He was still active, and people who crossed him ended up as decorations.  As wonderful, ironic, pieces of art to be returned to the families of those who’d he’d sacrificed on the altar of one of the wealthiest business currently in existence.

“I’ve met him before. Understand?” She wouldn’t meet their eyes now, gaze flickering around the walls and over the mess of coffee dripping off the side of the table. “I won’t say more, I _can’t_ say more, please tell me you know enough to understand me. This doesn’t pass your lips even to your friends. Don’t say a word; don’t _think_ a word. Use this to keep yourselves safe. I hope you are as good as you say and that she was wrong.”

Heath remained frozen in place like he’d felt the splintering crunch of someone walking over his grave and stepping on an exposed bone.

The kettle started hissing for mysterious reasons, and the faint sound of Aki and Ead talking could be heard through the wall. Kurapika felt a deep-set discomfort settle into his bones that almost cooled his anger.

“Thank you.” Heath managed at last. “I understand. Probably better then you know. That was… helpful. Kurapika? We’re going now.”

A moment later they were outside, Heath leaning on the wall and Kurapika staring blindly ahead. Should he stick with the Lost Hunters, or they would back out now the stakes were so high? And Leorio— Leorio...

This could kill him as sure as the Phantom Thieves could. Could he justify—Who could redeem, who could save, his clan if not for him—was he evil just for thinking this—What should, could he—

Heath hissed, and Kurapika abruptly cut off his train of thought and turned his attention to the empath.

“Fuck,” Heath said. “So that’s why everyone’s scared of the police. If the Devil’s Surgeon is involved… Don’t tell them what we just heard. Not a word. Don’t even think too hard on it. We’re hunting a small local group and once we take them down it will be over. This is a normal mission for us, and nothing has changed.”

Kurapika stared at Heath, and for the first time since they walked out, examined him. Sweat dripping from his chin, Heath watched the end of the hall, body poised between flight and freeze.

“What are you—” Kurapika asked.

Heath straightened up, “We’re not talking about this, and you’re not going to talk about this. I should have made you leave before I asked her any questions. Why the _hell_ did it have to be them.” Scrubbing at his face, Heath kept his eyes turned away, “Please get Aki and remember, this stays between us. Our lives ride on it.” Heath muttered, walking off towards where half of Ead was visible as he said at the top of the stairs down talking into a phone.

Kurapika frowned after Heath as he turned the corner and disappeared, and at the partly open door to Leorio’s apartment.

His phone rang, cutting through his thoughts like a dagger.

Kurapika fumbled for it and hit answer before he’d even checked the number. “Yes?”

“ _It’s me, Melody._ ” The familiar voice left a sinking feeling in his gut. Irrational.

But he still felt something in him clinging onto her voice. “What is it?” he managed to get his voice steady.

“ _I’m ringing up to see how you’re going.”_

Kurapika stared down the hall at the backs of the heads just visible at the top of the stairs and the muted movement from Leorio’s apartment. “I know where he disappeared. It’s an old subway line that’s now housing. I’m still at his apartment, for now, but that’s where we’re going next. I don’t know much more than that. The Lost Hunters are... They’re hiding something big. I now know that the Devil’s Surgeon is related to this case and that almost caused one of them a breakdown. He said that it’s irrelevant, but I am certain that was a lie. I need to know more. The police are connected to this case, and no one is explaining _anything_ to me.”

“ _Hm…”_ Melody tapped the phone in a slow rhythm, an unconscious habit Kurapika had noticed when she was considering the difficult problem. “ _What have you heard about the police that makes you say that. Because my digging about the commissioner is interesting. They’re_ very _well-funded, and I keep finding whispers of corruption from journalists that shortly after vanish. I only started looking because of a lack of leads elsewhere, but if you’re also getting suspicious of them…_ ”

Kurapika took a deep breath, and let it whistle out through his nose. Nothing in life was a coincidence, but sometimes all he could see was the threads connecting the events. “I’ve now met two people who fear the police more than the human traffickers. And I suspect that Jarlath Heath knows a hell of a lot more then he’s letting on.”

“ _That one?”_ Melody sounded startled. “ _Hm. Think we should try and remove them from this problem? Are you in danger?”_

Kurapika kept his eyes on the end of the hall and lowered his voice even further. “I think that there is a division of sorts among these hunters. And the connection with the police that none of them are explaining to me might be connected to it.”

Melody was silent a moment. “ _I think I should try a little in-person questioning. It’s a lot harder to turn away a hunter when they turn up at your front door, isn’t it?”_

Kurapika let out a slow breath as a little tension eased from his shoulders. “I think you’re right. I’m beginning to suspect this goes a lot deeper than just Leorio and that we might have to dig through a lot of this shit to find him.”

“ _I’ll try.”_ Melody hummed. “ _Be careful.”_

Kurapika opened his mouth to say something dismissive, and at the last moment caught it and twisted it to, “You too.” He hung up and shoved the phone into his pocket again. After taking a minute to centre himself, he walked into the apartment where Aki had her nose pressed to the dining table, sniffing it.

“What are you doing.” He asked flatly

She glanced up. “Heightened sensors thanks to Nen. What are you doing?”

“Here to tell you we’re leaving.”

“Heath using you as a messenger boy now? Where is the walking mess?”

Kurapika wanted to make a stabbing comment, and after a moment he gave up looking for a reason not to. “You’re very open about your dislike for your colleague.” He observed.

“Ha. You try working with someone who can read your emotions. Not much point in putting on a polite face. The thing where he tells you what your feeling as if he thinks you don’t know? Annoying as hell. And he used to do it much worse. He knows what he knows through trial and error. He’s on one of those mental scales. He’s shit recognising emotions like love, or compassion, or that stuff because of it. He learnt emotions from the Bosses. Before them, he never interacted with people except online. Explains everything, doesn’t it?”

“Hm.” Kurapika turned around, running his own heightened perception over the apartment. “Do you have any offensive skills or is your back up plan here still running away from the danger.”

“Cute.” He almost heard her rolling her eyes. “I’m a licenced hunter and a police detective, kid, what do you think?”

Kurapika ignored the kid part and asked the question that had been hounding him. “And as a police detective, why do you think everyone around here is more scared of you then the Flesh Hunters? Do you really think it's just a little corruption and police brutality?”

“…wouldn’t be the first time.” Aki leaned back and glared down at the table. “Corruption runs deep in the force. Fucking weak-willed bastards who’d bow and lick whatever boot pays the most with deeply ingrained attachment to power. Pathetic.”

“If they’re so corrupt why keep working for them?” Kurapika prodded, “I suppose you do seem pretty self-interested. It would make sense. Those sorts of power structures are easy to exploit…”

“Remember, kid; I’m not a Lost Hunter. I’m just here moonlighting.” She gave a nasty smile. “I can fight fine. Besides, I doubt you’re a blacklist Hunter because you enjoy the paychecks. Think of me as a fellow in spirit.”

“Hm.” Kurapika’s eye caught on one of the few pictures he was in. A group photo of himself, Leorio, Gon and Killua. He wondered who had taken it. The almost light smile he was wearing seemed so foreign as to be alien. He looked young, and content. It was only a matter of months ago.

He’d forgotten about that. He’d forgotten he could feel that.

“Hey, Kurapika? You alright there?” Aki asked, and he turned absently to find her staring at him.

“Fine. I’m fine.” The inch in his eyes wasn’t going away. He gave his head a violent shake. “You find anything?”

“Nothing useful but the fact no one has entered his apartment but that girl next door and an odd scent that I’m sure is the old man who owns the place. I’m going through some of those papers tonight, however. I know that he’s been getting extra stuff from people who weren’t our girl next door. Maybe one of them knows something else. He’s had to deal with most of them in person, and I want to trace down their locations. They must have targeted him due to the disease, and I doubt that anyone in the Old Line new enough to dob him in to them before the vines broke out visibly on the skin. A pharmacist might know enough to pick it early. Every avenue is worth looking at. But for now, poking around that den of scum and trash is likely to be more direct.”

Kurapika gave a sharp nod and turned for the door. At this point he was being to feel haunted by the photos on the walls. Something was nagging at him, and he wasn’t sure if it was the guilt, the duty to his clan that he was failing, anger that he never dealt with and merely lived with, with or just the company he was keeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait for this chapter - I have the common complaint of university being a bitch and having two essays due in the last week. Well. I got a quick break to finish this chapter anyway. 
> 
> Speaking of this chapter, it ended up being a hell of an annoying one to edit. Too many characters talking at cross purposes. Well. Kurapika beginning to see a little more of the picture. The next chapter will finally be down in The Old Line. Hopefully that will will be quicker!


	6. Chapter 5

The Old Line was made of the long, narrow, high passages of an old subway line made narrower by three-fourths of the tunnel being adapted to cheaply built units. The plywood walls were thin and warped by humidity and made thin to the point of translucency. None of the old fluorescent lights matched in colour and many flickered constantly or were non-functional. The conversion into welfare housing had been the brainchild of a politician who’d campaigned on the basis of free housing for those below the poverty line. However, like most poorly thought out enterprises based on a policy written by rich fools, it was now the forgotten cesspool of those the government preferred not to meet the eye of.

Narrow doors were often left open, with people walking in and out of the rooms and sectors according to the numbers hung in rusting iron on the doors. Kids always ran underfoot. Each of the rooms was about the same size as a coffin, but with just enough liveable space vertically for a person to theoretically live. Stoves and the like sat outside, and the smell of a dozen different meals cooking would have been pervasive if it hadn’t been grossly overpowered by the sewerage line. Every dozen or so rooms, a portable toilet and shower were set up. Both drained directed into a sewerage line that ran in a pipe along the edge of the far wall. It had regular hatches to dump rubbish into, several which had broken off leaving the smell and muck to leak out.

It was loud, busy and hectic, but even in the noise and life there was tension running through everything. Kurapika caught a few men and women observing them as the four of them walked through their territories. Even the kids who bumped into them tended to go quiet and run faster when they realised that they didn’t know them. One little girl grabbed hold of Aki’s leg to hide behind it from another girl.

“Oi, what you doing, kid? Get off!” Aki snapped.

The child went still, looked up and tripped back in her hurry to back away. Kurapika only had a moment of seeing the fear and tears forming in her eyes before she fled. There were more dark looks after that, and Aki responded by glowering back and stalking ahead, growling under her breath. A small bubble of silence followed them, with the noise of either side more deafening for the silence of those they walked by.

Kurapika dropped into step beside Ead and Heath. Heath clung onto Ead’s hand, hunched over with his eyes closed, and counting from one to four over and over in a barely audible voice.

“He’s not about to faint here, is he?” Kurapika whispered, eyes still trailing along the still faces surrounding them.

Ead seemed a little taller than before, and his teeth were leaving him with a lisp now. “I’m stabilising him,” he said, gesturing down with his head. Kurapika realised there was a faint Nen glow around the hand he was gripping Heath’s with. “He’s fine.”

“Two, three- it’s okay, Kurapika,” Heath cut his counting off, “I’ll manage. You can take me off your long list of worries; I won’t cause any trouble for you.”

Kurapika paused for a moment, caught between defending himself against the implication of being heartless enough to only care when it was convenient for him, or denying he’d worried at all.

“Aha!” Aki announced loudly ahead of them, “Up here, boys!”

Deciding that neither argument would make him look better, Kurapika settled for moving on into the chamber beyond where Aki stood.  The high hall had the front of an aged wooden apartment building. Tiny narrow windows glowed with yellowed internal lights and crowded doorways. The foundations of the old railway platform was now integrated into the facade. This was now one of the central living hubs, officially at least.

Unofficially, Kimmy’s map named it as the centre of the gang controlling about ten square kilometres of the lines in this sector.

“I’m looking for your boss!” Aki said, pitching her voice to echo about the chamber. Faces, angry and indifferent stared back down at her. Aki spread her arms and grinned widely. “Ah, come on, boys and girls. I’m here a-hunting. I’m looking for blood and I hear a lot of it’s been spilled down here. I want to tear some throats out and I’m told you guys might be able to point me in the right direction.”

A woman dropped from one of the third story doors down to the ground. Bringing herself back up to her full eight feet of pure muscle to reveal the massive cuts through her face from her jaw and through her lip and eye and one that had severed her left ear from her head. A sword only little shorter than her was strapped to her back.

Aki brought herself up to her full five feet of spite and rage. “Well? You the boss?”

“No, but for you I might as well be.” The giant rubbed at the back of her head, “He’s busy right now. But I am definitely enough to deal with whatever problem you have, little woman.”

Aki raised an eyebrow. “Really? I don’t have a height complex, just so you know. I’m not a guy.”

“You butted in and started shouting. Doesn’t make me want to be polite to you. I’m Anna The Dragon. People do often yell insults at me, but only once.”

“I’ve never heard of you. Can’t be that tough.” Aki said.

“I live in the Old Line. If I were well known I wouldn’t be here, would I.” Anna said tartly, cracking her knuckles. “You seem to have missed the point of my introduction anyway. I should give you the quick version.”

“Oh, you’re feisty! I like you. For that you’ll only lose a few teeth.”

Kurapika stepped in beside Aki and got a grip on the back of her jacket holding her back. Hunters should not go around challenging civilians to duels. Not even members of gangs. Well, they could, but it would make it either hard to ask questions or impossible to get truthful answers. “Lovely as watching you try and fight people is, I would rather like to get to the point. We’re here to find the group that’s been kidnapping people. They took my friend and—”

Anna tipped her head to the side and Kurapika caught the glint of red in her one good eye. He floundered for a moment before he realised it was the wrong red. Too dark, too ugly. Caught in the past, he felt the world going distant with the change in hue of his eyes going scarlet.

“And?” Anna prompted. “And what?”

“And I would _very_ much like to _kill them all_.”

Kurapika heard the slight whimper behind him. Well. Heath had Ead to catch him when he fainted.

Aki grinned at Kurapika and slapped him on the back. “What he said! We’re here to kill these sons of bitches. Point us at them and we’ll move on. I know you guys probably can’t deal with them, but I’ve never seen a gang down here that doesn’t know when even a cockroach sneezes in their territory and I’ll bet you want these fuckers gone a hundred times more than us. Scratch our back, we’ll murder those bastards for you.”

Anna folded her arms. “So long as you lot don’t just get straight up killed by them.”

“Oh, we’re pretty hard to kill. Least I am. Don’t know about those losers, but I’ll give em a run for their money. I’ll make em scream for their _mothers_.”

“Good for you.” Anna gave Aki an alarmed appraisal but stood her ground. “If we knew anything useful, we’d probably even tell you. But it’s not like there’s a neat well-guarded base down here. We barely even know they were here until someone else gets reported missing. We’ve met them in person once. It did not end neatly, and they scarpered after some blood loss on both our sides.”

“Sounds like you’re not trying hard enough,” Aki said. “Or are you lot just weak? Give me more to work with here. Are you just trying to hold ground here? Did you even go looking for these bastards?”

Anna slowly leaned in until she was near eye level with Aki, her eyes glinting the dull burning red of dying red dwarf stars. “They took one of my kids. She was seven. She’s gone now. That was a month ago. She’s almost certainly dead. A hunter went looking for her, and then he went missing too. Want to know why I’m the one dealing with you? My husband and my wife are searching for her. We want her back to bury her and so her twin can see her sister’s face one last time. We hope Martha will understand that her twin is dead if we can manage that. And that’s just my family. One family in this room. I can tell you a story like that for every corridor you just walked through. Now. Look me in the eye and tell me we didn’t search. Tell me I don’t _care_.”

Behind them Kurapika heard the dull thud of someone dropping to their knees and Heath screaming, “Stop it, Aki, stop it! Stop talking, stop talking, STOP TALKING!”

Anna caught Kurapika’s eye and fixated on him.

Kurapika took a deep breath, his body shaking with repressed memories trying to get out. He could hear the scarlet eyes of his family crying out in the dark for his mind. But for the first time he was starting to hear odd echos. His mind was creating reverberations of imagined cries for voices he didn’t know. That he didn’t care about. That he shouldn’t care about.

He couldn’t deal with this. He didn’t want to deal with this. Shouldn’t have to deal with this. His mind looped in on itself, linking back and forth.

Red eyes. Scarlet eyes.

When did reality ever care what he thought?

“My clan is dead, the same as your daughter. They died for their eyes.” His fingernails dug into his hands and chains crushed the nerves enough to send involuntary shudders up and down his arm. “I’m still fighting to get them back. But now my friend’s been taken by people like them. He’s still alive, but I don’t know how…how long…I don’t want to lose anyone else. I won’t let them take anyone else from me! I..I can understand what you’re going through down here. We’ll stop it. My friend Leorio was trying to help you, I think,” he saw a spark of recognition at the name, but ploughed on, “I think he was the hunter that went looking for your daughter. And I didn’t even know he was doing it. I never thought he’d be in danger and now I must do something. I must save him, I know you’d prefer I was here because I’m pure of heart like Leorio and just wanted to help, but I’m not. I’m selfish. I’m here because my friend’s going to die if I do nothing, and I don’t want have to…I _can’t…_ ” He trailed off, not even sure what he needed to say, his soul raw and itchy.

There was a cut off sob behind him, and he felt Aki’s eyes cutting into the side of his head. He still wasn’t sure why he’d said all that, but staring into red eyes he didn’t have the energy to care.

Anna’s face twitched a little, into an almost smile. “You’re wrong about one thing. I’d never say that selfless people are better. I look after my family first, always. My chosen family. Selfishness is what you do with it. Yours includes your friends. Hang onto that. Hang onto your humanity.” Anna stared for a few moments longer, and pulled back; tension clung to her skin like sweat. “What do you plan to do?”

Kurapika stared a moment longer, released from a trap he hadn’t realised he was in. Weight of killing intent that had been building up their whole conversation gone in an instant. He swung at Aki, who still looked unsteady. “You told me that it was likely one of the pharmacists who made Leorio a target. Why.”

“That’s usually who it is. The chemists are common, have enough training to understand the diseases the Flesh Hunters want, and enough anonymity to pass on the information without danger to themselves. And they see a lot of sick people.”

“And so how does that work down here were most of the population gets their medical services from a group of volunteer students?”

“I…I’m not sure yet. Maybe one of the students...?”

Anna’s eyes flicked back and forth. “We don’t get all our treatment from the students. Most of it comes from the government.”

“Government?” Aki said.  

“Yeah, sure. Lovely old lady comes down here every few months. She’s been doing it for decades.” Anna frowned. “What’s with those looks. She’s been coming for years before any of the current problems started. Lady Jokdeam is a bit odd but she does her best with a tiny budget, and she does good work.”

Kurapika rubbed at his face, his brain was frying, but there were shapes in the dark. Odd shapes, but shapes nonetheless. “But she might know something about the locations of potential victims. She might be able to point us at the right area to stake out. If we can be close enough when these people strike, we can capture them and force out enough information to find their central location.” Or she was the one marking out targets for death. Either way, she was a lead.

“Lady Jokdeam is due to be back soon, and she often drops in here first thing because we’re so close to the main entrance. I’m expecting to see her in the next day or so. She keeps to no schedule that we can keep track of, but she will pass through in the next twelve hours or so. Stay here and wait for her. I know that time means everything right now, but you won’t find her quicker leaving. Not in these tunnels. Wait here, and she’ll come to you.”

Kurapika turned to look about at the small group of Hunters. Heath’s eyes were squeezed shut, and he was hanging onto Ead as a lifeline. Ead stood stiffly as he glanced between Kurapika and Aki.

Aki cleared her throat, “Well, I think we should do it. It’s not like we’re getting any other leads right now. And if we’re staying here, I’ll take a nap. Wake me when there’s action.” She stalked away to a wall and folded herself into a corner.

Anna leaned into Kurapika and whispered as she watched Aki taking off her jacket and folding it over her face, “Should I tell her we do have a bed she could borrow, or do you think that would offend her.” Kurapika eyed her, trying to pick if she was joking or serious. Anna cracked a grin. “Ah, we better leave her. She’s having fun camping out. If you guys want a bed, just ask. I’m going to make coffee. Come on, waiting is the worst job of all. Least we can have something to drink while we wait. If you want to sleep, I’ll wake you when something interesting happens.”

Ead shifted so Heath’s arm was over his shoulder, and Heath’s knees buckled enough to drag on the ground. Kurapika stared, as he noticed that Ead was now nearly the same height as Heath.

“You don’t mind if I borrow a bed so Jarlath can sleep off the overload he’s dealing with?”

Anna peered at Heath and snorted. “He looks like shit. Yeah sure, in there."

 “Oh, good.” Ead reached about and pressed a finger into Heath’s forehead. He paused, and glanced at Anna for a moment, before apparently coming to some conclusion, and pulling the finger back. Heath went limp, his breathing evening out into sleep.

A mist of red with flecks of a dirty looking purple followed the finger, gathering into a ball of softly glowing light. Pinching it between his thumb and index finger, he chewed it down.

Teeth grew to the point where they would make speech almost impossible, and second pair of horns eased out of Ead's hair line. With now half a foot of height over Heath, Ead easily picked him up, draping him over a shoulder.

Anna and Kurapika stared for a bit. Kurapika hadn’t thought the concept of eating emotions would be quite that literal. Ead raised an eyebrow and gave Anna a curious hum and gestured towards the door with his head.

“Well, that was a thing,” Anna said. “Beds through here. If either of the other two of you don’t sleep, I’ve got a pot of coffee on.”

 “Yes, please.” Kurapika managed. “Strong as you can make it.”

“One cup of coffee strong as the devil's opinions coming up!”

****

Kurapika woke with a start, a throttled noise caught in his throat before realising he’d been asleep. Leorio wasn’t dead yet. Either the coffee had been very weak despite tasting of tar, or he’d run himself so close to exhaustion it had stopped working.  Considering the coffee had been the consistency of thickened caramel and tasted like the underside of a wharf Kurapika found himself leaning towards the latter.

His cheek was resting in something sticky. He didn’t know what it was, but then again there was only so much dignity he was willing to sacrifice.

He sat up. The bowl of soup he’d been eating before falling asleep had tipped over. Kurapika sighed and tried to wipe the stew off his face.

“You’re up!” Anna poked her face way too close, and Kurapika kept his eyes fixated on the table so he wouldn’t have to see her eyes. “I considered moving you, but you look…bitey. And I didn’t feel like getting bit.” She moved back out of his line of sight, “Oi! Martha! Get him a cloth to clean up with.”

“Yes, Aunty!”

“You don’t—” Kurapika began, scrubbing at his face.

A small kid ran back in and held out a worn pink and red polka dot dishcloth out to him. She stared at him until he took it.

“—thank you.” Kurapika took it.

Anna dropped a fresh cup of coffee onto the table. “And this time it should do more for you. Amazing, what a little sleep can do for a person.”

“Is that why you sleep twenty hours a day?” Martha sat herself down at the table, chin on the countertop.

“Yes. Yes, it is. Also, I like sleep.”

“Sleep’s boring.” The child told Kurapika. “I can’t make music when I sleep, and I have to listen to people snoring. Anna snores a lot.”

Kurapika considered his conversation choices. “You like music?”

“Yes. I’m going to be a concert violinist. I saw a man who once playing for a whole street of people who kept staying to listen. I want everyone to stop to listen to my music and smile at me one day. I’m not very good, but I’m still kinda good! My friend's been teaching me and he's a master too. Want me to get my violin and show you?”

He had a moment of consideration of the dark shadows under the kid’s eyes, and the genuine joy in her eyes. “I’d love to hear you play.”

“Yes!” The girl threw her arms in the air. “I’ll be right back!”

Anna said back down on the bench. “Thanks.” She said softly and settled in with her own mug.

Kurapika shrugged, “It’s nothing.”

Anna gave a half smile and a raised eyebrow. “But still, thanks.”

Kurapika glanced about, carefully running an eye around the room to track the changes. The kitchen type room looked much the same, but there were a lot more dishes.

It was a compact room, with all the cooking utilities indoors that most of the units down here seemed to be forced to use outside. Smoke and burn marks above the stove top and the rusted hood showed off the high building standards. He noted the several fire extinguishers sitting on one of the top shelves, next to a dozen plates gathered from as many sets and a few decades of history.

He’d stayed out of the way while Anna and a few others had been cooking. He'd been gifted a bowl of soup by a particularly loud old lady. He assumed that was the point when he’d fallen asleep. The kitchen was empty again now, but he could hear voices echoing through most of the surrounding walls.

“How long did I sleep.” He asked, picking up his cup to drink.

“About an hour.”

Kurapika rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t think I was that tired. How’d I even fall asleep…”

“By closing your eyes and snoring. That’s how people sleep.”

“I know that!” Kurapika glowered. “I just don’t normally sleep much, and it surprised me that I did so here.” He hoped she’d take that he meant the kitchen the central meeting point, and not just referencing the fact they were practically in a sewer. Maybe it was because there were people. Sleeping in an empty room was normal, but he always seemed to get so much more sleep in crowded spaces.

“An hour isn’t much.”

“I know that too.”

A small blur of energy re-entered carrying a violin over her head triumphantly. “Got her!”

The five-minute violin concert was definitely one composed by a seven-year-old and one with a loose idea of how music was meant to be composed. Kurapika had spent enough time with Melody to be able to recognise some rhythm and tune inherent even in a song played without sheet music or any apparent training.

It wasn’t as bad as he’d expected, even if he still felt a twinge of relief when it ended.

Martha dropped the violin away from her chin and folding her arms over it and her bow and gave a sharp bow. “Thank-you-for-listening.” She rattled off before turning and strutting off.

Anna waited for a moment or two until she was out of hearing range. “She thinks part of being a musician is dramatic exits. We’re not sure why, to be honest. I blame her father.”

“Hm.” Kurapika pinched his nose. “How long until this doctor gets here?”

Anna shrugged and slid from the bench, “I don’t know. I did say it depended on her schedule.” Picking up a blackened sponge from the counter, she tossed it from hand to hand. “Soon, though. She said she was going to check in soon.”

Kurapika grunted and sunk back into his thoughts. The chances that this doctor had Nen were…he had no idea. There was a possibility that he could try and track her, but there were far too many ways this could fail.

Nothing could speed up waiting, and with the fractured memories from his dreams haunting him, Kurapika was aware of time ticking away.

Anna hummed to herself for a moment and said, “You’re looking for the hunter, Leorio, who was working with the pharmacy students, yes? You mentioned his name earlier.”

“Yes.” Another person who’d seen Leorio and had nothing to add. If Leorio was so good at befriending people, why couldn’t he have managed to find someone capable of basic detective skills.  

“Ah.” There was a soft thud, and he looked up to see Anna resting her head on the hood of the stove. “Well, he did say that if something happened to him, his friends would come looking eventually.”

Kurapika almost bit a hole in his cheek trying to keep his face in check. “He said that?”

“Yeah. He’d been delivering medicine Lady Jokdeam proscribed. Danielle, the one who…who was sick needed a few rounds more of antibiotics then we expected. Kimmy checked prescribed a new one and sent in Leorio.” She gave a stifled snort. “First time he visited he spent half an afternoon trying to teach Martha how to play her violin better.”

Kurapika paused, guilt fading to puzzlement, and frowned. “I didn’t know he could play.”

A quiet laugh startled him as Anna pressed fingers into her mouth. “I am absolutely certain that he’d never seen a violin in person before that day. I have no idea what he was thinking. The noise was _awful._ ”

An answering smile was pulled from him for a moment as Kurapika found himself picturing Leorio whole, grinning that stupid smile of his and causing the violin to screech its displeasure at him. “I’ll bet he told her he was a master at playing it.”

“He told her that as a master of all music, he could learn any instrument in a few hours.” Anna leaned back away from the stove, smile wide behind her hand. Her smile softened and warmed as she added, “And the next time he delivered medicine, when the second one failed, he brought some music books. Told her that he ‘poured all through the fonts of knowledge to find the greatest works ever’.”

Kurapika covered his eyes, a smile still pulling a bit at his mouth, “Can she even read them?”

Annas snorted. “No. But there were a few in the stack that had diagrams and pictures. She’s persisting.”

Hiding behind the shadow of his hand, Kurapika indulged a moment of imagining the scene. For a moment, he almost saw Leorio’s grin.

A shout from outside heralded a young man in a street cleaner’s uniform skidding through the doorway.

“Lady Jokdeam is here!”

“Thanks, Sammy.” Anna was on her feet and leading the way back through to the semi courtyard outside of the structured mess. A woman in a dirty coat, a dark shirt and a ratty tie, whose long hair was tied back and braided within an inch of its life was talking with Aki. It took a breath for Kurapika to realised why he knew her face.

“Campbell Inpaenitens?” Kurapika took a moment to stare at Aki’s face, searching for her reaction.

Aki looked bemused, but not worried. Kurapika took a few seconds to consider what little he knew and the great amount he didn’t and stepped back a little to let Aki guide this conversation where she would. Anna hung back entirely. He could feel her eyes but ignored them in favour of what the subtle play of emotions on Inpaenitens’s face as Aki kept talking.

To be here and have been here long enough for Anna to knew she was here she must have left at almost exactly the same time.

“Hey, so what the fuck you doing here, boss?” Aki began.

Campbell Inpaenitens glanced at Kurapika, back to Aki and pointed at her jaw and the wires holding it shut. Shrugging a leather bag from one shoulder to the other, she pulled out a notebook and wrote, ‘ _Day Job. Pays medical bills. Didn_ _’t know you were coming. Would’ve saved petrol. Heath said you would be in area. Not Old Line.’_

Kurapika said nothing as Aki barked a laugh. “What’s done is done and damn, does this make our lives easier now!”

‘ _Missing people here?’_ Campbell scribbled out while they waited.

Aki frowned at the page for a moment, “Yeah, but you had to know that already. Why haven’t you told the rest of us about this one? This is the shit Camron lives for. Apparently, the group here is organised and dangerous as hell.”

‘ _Yes. I know. Been tracking. Poorly. Only big problem little while. Job still to do.’_

Aki waved her arm about. “Seven or eight months ago seems to be when it started. Not that short a time, but I guess you only come here occasionally. Stroke of luck for us you’re here now, eh? Okay, so we still had to sit around half a day, but you can help us out now, right?”

Campbell Inpaenitens grunted and pointed a finger at Aki before writing out. ‘ _How tracking?’_

“We’re hoping you could point us towards where you think some likely targets are and we’ll stake out that section until we find something. It’s not like we have anything else to go on.”

Rubbing her face, Inpaenitens turned her eyes upward in contemplation. A moment later she looked down again and wrote out, ‘ _Map? Got few suggestions. Haven’t had time to check myself, but you could use?’_

Inpaenitens drew out a few suggestions and notes into the map, pointing around at the interacting corridors to show the directions.

Aki scratched her nose as she stared down at the map. “Nice. As good as we could hope for. We’ll be breaking noses in no time. You’re joining us, right?” She stared at Inpaenitens with the hope of a dog staring at their owner.

 _‘No. People to help first.’_ Inpaenitens shook her bag of medicines and equipment to demonstrate the point. ‘ _Join up when found-’_ she paused a moment, pen hovering over the page before ending, ‘ _the_ _shit bastards,’_ to Aki’s intense laughter.

“Right boss, always good to remember why I like you better. Well, I’ll kick Heath and Ead in the head and drag them off. We’ll meet up here—” she grabbed a finger at a spot on the map and waited until Inpaenitens acknowledged it. “I assume you can get yourself there without a problem?” She finished with a playful grin.

Inpaenitens raised an eyebrow.

“Ha! Yes, yes, I can see you thinking, ‘what do you think brat.’ I understand, I understand. Kurapika? Do me a favour and go and pick up our idiot friends who are still napping. I’ll save Ead the human interaction and send the message through to the boss. The other boss.”

Kurapika caught a stare from Inpaenitens before she turned away to listen to Anna who’d come forward to list what they needed. There was a surface level of playful sarcasm with Campbell, unlike her sister, but like Camron, he couldn’t get a solid read on Campbell.

Something to remember and a reason to watch his back. But then again, he always did that. When had he ever met a Hunter he trusted without question? He hoped that Melody found something to give him a solid basis to believe or disbelieve them.

He walked back inside, weaving his way in and around people who let him by without much interest. Kurapika suspected most of them had seen him sleeping in his soup, and that had done a lot for his potential threat factor.

Ead was sitting on the end of the bed Heath was asleep on, writing into a notebook. Ead looked less monstrous now and was almost back to his original size. He was sitting, his leg slung across Heath’s so there was skin contact. “Kurapika.”

“Ead. We’re leaving.”

Ead reached out and flicked Heath’s ankle. “Wake up, Jarleth. We’re going.”

Heath snorted, his eyes flying open, “Wha? Uh. Uhge… Yeah sure, whatever.”

“The lady doctor appeared, and it seems that she’s your boss. Campbell Inpaenitens, not the other one.”

Ead frowned. “Interesting.” He glanced at Heath, “You don’t think it’s interesting.”

Heath had seized up the second Inpaenitens’s name had been mentioned. He gave Ead a sick smile. “Oh, just a shock she’s down here, that’s all…Ha. Hahah.”

“That’s a lie. Why are you lying.”

Heath froze and glanced at Kurapika hopefully. Kurapika did his best to project just how little he cared about whatever issues Heath was hiding. Heath winced heavily and leaned back, “Ah, well… you see…” He jumped off the bed and ducked back out the door. “…I’d hate to keep the boss waiting!”

Ead stared after him for a moment and sighed. “Going to kill him one day.”

Kurapika said nothing and made a slight gesture at the door.

“Yes, we should go. Hm. No doubt this will make sense later.”

Kurapika doubted it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going well, isn't it!
> 
> Thank you to sorrow_key for betaing and helping me sort and clean up the mess of my gramma!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction, so, uh, please be kind? I've got the next few chapters planned out so hopefully I'll post the next bit soon! I'm really excited about this and hope it goes well! I'll probably adjust the rating and tags as I figure out the details of this fic.
> 
> Please note the slow burn tag by the way - I've got a LOT of plot to write before the romance even becomes subtext. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better,
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading!


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